The Dark Side of the Art
by Q6
Summary: Ranma must fight his growing dark side after his battle with Saffron (A Ranma, Street Fighter, King of Fighters X-over)
1. Family Reunion

The Dark Side of the Art By: Q A Ranma 1/2 - Street Fighter - King of Fighters crossover Disclaimer: None of the character within this story belong to me, they belong to Rumiko Takahashi, Capcom, and SNK respectively.  
  
Family Reunion  
  
"If you learn this technique you will be even better than 'Him', in fact you'll be unbeatable! You'd like that, right?" Genma patiently asked his child.  
  
"Yep, I want to be as good as 'him'!" replied the enthusiastic 6 year old. Genma quickly tied the poor child up with fish sausages. "Okay get in there and learn the Neko-ken!"  
  
"Right!" Genma's meal tick... er, pride and joy yelled while jumping into the pit. Genma wasted no time in sealing the pit "It'll work for sure this time." Genma checked his camping bag and pulled out the herbal shampoo 110. "With this I'll just erase any memory of the cat fist training, and get some some nice kittens, an....."  
  
"Well now, if it isn't Genma. How have you been old man?" Genma turned towards the voice only to stare in shock at the figure before him.  
  
"Ra...Ranma?!" Genma was sweating bullets, he knew he was taking a chance when he took Keiko to teach her the Neko-ken. Nodoka warned him not to do any crazy training exercises with her because if he did he WOULD be caught. He hadn't thought anyone was capable of actually catching him, of course he never considered Ranma to be around. The chances of the ungrateful brat being around was scant at best.  
  
Ranma did a quick scan of the area and his cold face turned back towards the fat fool in front of him. "Where is she?" his tone of voice left no room for argument. Of course Genma missed that small fact "where's who?" Genma asked while trying to look innocent. Ranma shook his head, how did he ever trust this man was beyond him. Genma was as bad, if not worse, of a liar then he was.... well, then he used to be. "Don't screw with me old man, I'm not in the mood." Ranma let a little of his aura go.  
  
"Ow, hey, quit it, stop, that hurts.... Poppa!"  
  
Ranma jumped over Genma homing in on the sound. He quickly spotted a metal door laying on the ground, obviously recently dug up. Faster than the eye could see, Ranma ripped the door off it's hinges and subconsciously threw it in the general direction of Genma . Ranma moved even faster as he jumped into the pit and exited with a cringing red head.  
  
"Shh... It's alright, hey, come on..." Ranma held the girl close to him as she buried her head into his chest. "Hey, Keiko, it's me, Ranma." Ranma was relieved when Keiko slowly started to look up at him. "R..Ranma? is that really you?" Ranma smiled at her, one of the few people to still receive one from him, and spoke in a teasing manner "I promised I'd see you again didn't I 'Ranko', or did you think I was lying?"  
  
"Hey, what are two talking about?" Genma barked out angrily.  
  
Ranma's smile slowly left his face as he placed Keiko on the ground and ripped the remaining sausages off of her. "That was the last straw old man. I never thought you'd repeat the same mistake twice.... actually, I guess that was pretty stupid of me, but your daughter?!" Ranma finally stood up and faced Genma.  
  
"How did you know she was my daughter? or her name for that matter?" Genma asked while completely ignoring Ranma's previous accusations.  
  
"Do you really think I wouldn't know my own sister?...... and did you really think you would get away with doing this to her?" Ranma was engulfed in a blood red aura as he spoke.  
  
"She's not your sister, you decided that yourself! Her welfare is non of your concern!" Genma shouted.  
  
"Well I'm making it my concern, I'm taking 'Ranko' with me." Ranma smirked at his one time father.  
  
"I will not allow it!" Genma rushed at Ranma hoping to catch him off guard.  
  
"Hell Fire" Ranma softly spoke....  
  
__________  
  
Nodoka sat across from Kasumi and Nabiki "I really didn't expect for Genma to take her away for this long..."  
  
"It's okay, how were you supposed to know what Genma was thinking?" Kasumi tried to comfort the distraught women.  
  
'How indeed' Nabiki rolled her eyes at Kasumi's efforts. "Don't worry auntie I'm almost positive that Ra... er, Keiko will be alright." both Nabiki and Nodoka flinched at the slip, while Kasumi blinked. 'I'd better ask Nabiki what that was about.' The eldest Tendo daughter thought.  
  
"Really, you think so?" Nodoka asked, appearing to be hanging on Nabiki's every word. Said women began to squirm but continued on nonetheless "Yep, I got some friends on the look out. Even though I don't want to get your hopes up I think Keiko will show up before you know it..."  
  
*Knock* *Knock*  
  
All three women blinked. Kasumi patted Nodoka on the hand one last time "Don't worry auntie I'll go get it."  
  
"So Nabiki.... um, what makes you think Keiko will show up so soon?" Nodoka asked with hope in her eyes. Before she even received an answer, she received something even better, not to mention excited and talking a mile a minute.  
  
"Mom! I'm back, guess who brought me home! I bet you can't guess! You should've saw the cool move he did to dad. He was like "Hell Fire" and he sounded all cool, and then all this fire came out of nowhere and Dad was "Ahhh! put it out, put it out" and rolling on the floor and....mmph..."  
  
"Keiko!" Nodoka tried to get her daughters attention while also covering her mouth.  
  
"hmmph?" Keiko blinked at her mom.  
  
"Are you alright? where have you been? Did you eat okay? Where's your father? He isn't hurt is he? ..." Nodoka quickly did her impersonation of her daughter. The three other adults in the house each sported sweatdrops as they watched the two run at the mouth.  
  
"Mom, look who I came with!" Keiko quickly ran over to her escort and jumped on his shoulders when he knelt down.  
  
Nodoka wasn't sure what to feel, joy that both her children were back, worry that her daughter returned without her husband, or fear at what Ranma's return meant. "Hello.... Ranma"  
  
The room was silent for a while as everyone held their breath waiting for Ranma's reply.  
  
"Hello Mrs. Saotome, forgive me for showing up with out any warning but I figured you wanted to see your daughter as soon as possible.... Okay, Keiko, It's time for me to go." Ranma lowered his sister and probably biggest fan to the floor.  
  
"What?! But you just got here!" pouting at first Keiko's expression changed in a second to a smug grin. "Besides, you can't leave yet, you promised you'd tell me all about the cool people you meet."  
  
"I did promise that..."  
  
"And you wouldn't break your promise to me, would you?" Keiko decided to take the kid gloves off as she employed the world famous 'puppy dog eyes' routine.  
  
"N-No I wouldn't do that." Ranma stuttered while being overwhelmed with the act his sister was putting on for him. "I'll see you tomorrow, near your front yard around two, alright?"  
  
"Why don't you just stay here?" Kasumi and Nabiki both glanced at Nodoka, as Keiko continued to try to get Ranma to stay.  
  
"Sorry but I don't think me staying here would be a good idea. Besides, like a said, I'll see you tomorrow anyway. I promise."  
  
"Well..... okay, but you better tell me some good stories tomorrow!" Keiko said with her hands on her hips.  
  
Ranma tried to keep a straight face, he really did, but he couldn't help but chuckle at the idea of him getting scolded by his six year old sister. After nodding his head he slowly began to leave the house.  
  
"Ranma?" Nodoka called him back "where is your fat... where is Genma?"  
  
"I'd like to say six feet under..... but more than likely he's on his way back with only mild burns..... well maybe a little more than mild." Ranma shrugged his shoulders "I was in a hurry. It was.... good to see you two again." Ranma told the two Tendo sisters.  
  
__________  
  
The house was still filled with tension after Ranma's departure, it was as if they were waiting for the other shoe to eventually drop.  
  
"I guess we should be going." Nabiki was the first to get over the rather anticlimactic turn of events.  
  
"R-right, we'll see you again soon auntie..." Kasumi trailed off still looking towards the door Ranma exited just a few moments before.  
  
"Yeah, like tomorrow." Nabiki smirked while walking towards the door to leave.  
  
Kasumi blinked when Nabiki cross her eyes path, then looked towards Nodoka "You don't mind if we stop by tomorrow do you?"  
  
"No, I don't mind at all, in fact I'd be thrilled if you would." Nodoka smiled at the younger women.  
  
"Well until then, by Keiko" Kasumi gave a little wave to the girl before leaving to catch up with her sister.  
  
"Bye auntie!" Keiko yelled from the doorway as she watched Kasumi and Nabiki disappear down the road.  
  
"So Keiko, why don't you tell me what's happened to you since you left with your father." Nodoka patted the couch seat beside her.  
  
"Okay"  
  
__________  
  
Ranma slowly walked through the streets of Nerima taking in the sights. Even though he had came through Nerima a few months ago, hadn't stayed long enough to look around, not like this time at least. "Things look so different than they did seven years ago." Ranma words were carried away by the winds, as he catalogued some of the more memorable areas he walked by. Each one home to a different battle he had. The entire district looked almost brand new, no craters or destroyed walls, the fences all were standing up straight, even the roofs were completely covered with sturdy shingles.  
  
Eventually Ranma arrived at a rather nice looking hotel, after all he might have to bring Keiko here if things got to crazy tomorrow. After paying for the room, Ranma entered it and began to hang up his Chinese robe, he paused as he stared at the long black robe with red trim. 'Master.... I think I've found it....' continuing to undress Ranma couldn't help but notice how his style in close slightly changed once again after spending time training in China. 'I guess now that I'm back in Nerima I'm finally starting to notice the differences in me since I last lived here."  
  
Instead of his favorite red chinese shirt, he now wore a black chinese robe over a red sleeveless muscle shirt that clung to his upper body. the outline of a black dragon was sown onto the back, a gift from an old 'friend'. He also wore a pair of black Chinese pants that were a bit baggier than his older pair. Finally finishing off the ensemble were a pair of red boots covered mostly by his pants leg.  
  
Standing by the window, Ranma let his loose ponytail sway in the breeze and watched the lights of Nerima die down.  
  
__________  
  
"Oh my, what a surprise to see you here Mr. Saotome." Kasumi and Nabiki were both surprised to see Genma sitting across from their father covered in bandages.  
  
"Hello Kasumi, Nabiki it's been awhile." Genma nodded to the women.  
  
"Yeah, I haven't seen you since you left with little Keiko." Nabiki deadpanned.  
  
"*Ahem* I don't suppose you two are returning from my home by any chance?" Nabiki noticed Genma looking at Kasumi when he asked his question. 'Probably knows she won't scold him for taking Keiko away, and letting Ranma get her.'  
  
"Yes actually, we just saw her and Keiko." Kasumi, surprisingly, left out a certain someone's name.  
  
"What! Ranma brought her back?!"  
  
*Spfff*  
  
Soun turned his best friend into a panda thanks to the sake he was drinking. "Saotome, how did Ranma find out about Keiko... and how did he get her from the demon that kidnapped her from you?" Soun had been a bit suspicious about Genma's claim that a demon looking for Ranma had come and stole Keiko while burning Genma.  
  
"I thought Keiko said Ranma took her from Genma." Kasumi stated while heading for the kitchen.  
  
"Ranma?"  
  
Everyone whipped their heads towards the steps to see Akane coming down the stairs with her pet P-chan in her arms. Akane bit her lip and squeezed the little piggy extra tight as she repeated her question "Did you say Ranma? Have you seen him."  
  
"Um..." Kasumi seemed unsure of herself.  
  
"Yeah, Ranma brought Keiko home earlier this evening." Nabiki decided it was a lost cause to hope for Kasumi to lie, or to keep Ranma's return a secret.  
  
"Ranma's back...." Akane trailed off.  
  
"bwee!" Ryou.... er P-chan seemed to bristle.  
  
"Calm down, I didn't say he was staying." Nabiki calmly replied.  
  
"What! Ranma's leaving?!" Soun stood up.  
  
"Calm down, I didn't say he was leaving." Nabiki calmly replied.  
  
"What! Ranma's not leaving?!" Genma all but shrieked after changing back with the pot of hot water he keep nearby whenever he visited the Dojo.  
  
"Calm down, I didn't say he was staying... wait, didn't I already say that? Look, I don't know what Ranma is going to be doing yet, so just CALM DOWN!"  
  
"Now, now, Nabiki no need to get all worked up." Soun tried to tell his daughter. He received a cold stare for his efforts.  
  
"But Nabiki, he did say he was going to see Keiko again tomorrow." Nabiki redirected her stare towards her sister. "Why, thank you Kasumi."  
  
"You're welcome." Kasumi totally ignored the sarcasm in her sister's voice.  
  
"What! Ranma's ..." Genma trailed off as everyone produced the 'cold stare' in his direction.  
  
"Don't you dare start that up again." Nabiki ordered, er suggested to Genma. "And yes Ranma will be seeing Keiko tomorrow."  
  
"I wonder if I should bring them some cookies tomorrow, I'm sure we'll be out for awhile, Ranma has a lot of time to cover." Everyone blinked at Kasumi's comment.  
  
"We'll?" came from more than one person.  
  
"Of course, I can't wait to hear of all the things Ranma has gotten himself into since he left." and with that Kasumi finally made her way into the kitchen.  
  
"Now that you mention it, I can't wait to hear it either." Nabiki smirked.  
  
"Both of you are going to see him tomorrow?!" Akane asked as if the very thought was incomprehensible.  
  
"I wouldn't recommend it girls. Ranma is a monster! He tried to burn me alive!" Genma implored.  
  
"Hmm, Ranma said he only gave you mild burns..." Nabiki seemed to think out loud.  
  
"Ranma burned you like that Saotome?" Soun gasped finally making the connection that Ranma was the 'demon' that stole Keiko.  
  
"Why that no good, perverted, egotistical jerk! Wait till I get my hands on him!" Akane seemed to revert to her younger self as she started to rant about Ranma.  
  
"*Ahem* Akane, I do believe that this is between Ranma and his father, besides Ranma really doesn't have anything to do with you period." Nabiki pointed out for her dear sister.  
  
"...." Akane opened and closed her mouth a few times while trying to work around Nabiki's logic. Eventually Nabiki just grabbed Akane by the shoulders and directed her back up the stairs "Besides, you have to teach the weekend classes tomorrow."  
  
After Nabiki and Akane left the downstairs area Genma and Soun stared at each other for a moment.  
  
"Tendo..."  
  
"Saotome..."  
  
"Ha Ha! We still have a chance!" they both shouted, Genma quickly sobered up though.  
  
"However, we're going to have to be careful this time, Ranma's not as easy to control as he used to be." Soun nodded in agreement with his friends statement.  
  
"Yes, but if anyone can pull it off, it's us!" Soun shouted.  
  
__________  
  
"Hello." came a groggy voice over the telephone.  
  
"Hey, I didn't wake you up did I?" was the amused reply.  
  
"Of course not, I'm always up at..." the phone was quiet for a second before the first voice came back " 3'O Clock in the morning! who in the world calls at 3 in the morning?"  
  
"So... you're saying I did wake you up." the voice still sounded amused.  
  
"Yes, dammit. who is this anyway?"  
  
"You don't recognize my voice? I'm hurt."  
  
"Sorry, but cut me some slack it's in the middle of the night Ran-chan... RAN-CHAN!" Ukyo finally gained full consciousness.  
  
"Yo, Ucchan. I know it's late but I was just sitting here thinking and time kind of got away from me..." Ranma sounded a little apologetic.  
  
"Yeah, yeah, what's up? You usually just write to me, what's with the phone call in the middle of the night... you sound a bit... up beat. Something's definitely wrong here." Ukyo joked.  
  
"Well I guess I am acting a bit strange. But give me a break I just came back to Nerima earlier today... well I guess yesterday after traveling with Keiko for a couple of days, I saw Kasumi and Nabiki without any problems, and I even got to put Genma in his place, all in this one week." Ukyo could see Ranma almost smiling on the other end.  
  
"Wow, that's a lot... YOU'RE IN NERIMA!" Ukyo almost ignored that part from earlier.  
  
"That's right, I meeting Keiko tom... well, later today. I was thinking of bringing her by with me to your place tomorrow. Even though no one is supposed to show up I'm betting I'm going to be coming with more than just Keiko. Is that alright?"  
  
"Sure, I'll close up around one, how does that sound?"  
  
"Perfect."  
  
__________  
  
"Hmm, Keiko seems to have a lot of... older friends." Ranma whispered under his breath, out loud he called out "Hello Keiko... Nabiki, Kasumi, Akane, Soun, Nodoka, Mr. Panda. You all came... how considerate of you."  
  
Not even Kasumi could ignore the amount of sarcasm in his voice.  
  
"Well it has been awhile since any of us have seen you." Kasumi tried to placate.  
  
Ranma raised an eyebrow at Nabiki and Nodoka who shrugged their shoulders "You never told them?"  
  
Nabiki and Nodoka looked at each other, than at Ranma and shook their heads in the negative.  
  
"This isn't the first time you've seen Ranma since he left?" Akane demanded from her sister.  
  
"Yep, Ranma saw mom and auntie Nabiki at the Ucchan's!" Keiko helpfully informed Akane.  
  
[Dear! Why didn't you tell me?] the panda formally known as Genma waved the sign at his wife.  
  
"As much as I would enjoy listening to you guy tear into each other... (Ranma noted his mother hang her head at the panda's sign) figuratively, I do have a promise to Keiko to keep." After saying, Ranma sat her on his shoulders and began walking away forcing the others to catch up.  
  
"Don't you have classes or something?" Ranma asked after getting tired of Akane drilling holes in the back of his head.  
  
"No I don't, for your information." Akane turned her head to the side, pointedly looking away from Ranma.  
  
Ranma shrugged his shoulders, causing Keiko to squeal, he really didn't care if she had classes or not. His plan was to shut her up anyway and his plan was successful... mostly.  
  
"Yeah, she cancelled them for a family emergency."  
  
"NABIKI!"  
  
No plan is perfect, right?  
  
__________  
  
Eventually the silent, for the most part, group reached the 'Ucchan's'.  
  
"It seems it's closed." Kasumi stated the obvious.  
  
"Don't worry I called Ucchan last night, she closed early so we could have the place to ourselves." Ranma forgot who he was talking to.  
  
"So, you wanted no one around to notice you and Ukyo cheating behind my back!" Akane pointed an accusing finger at Ranma.  
  
"..." Was the reply to her statement. After a few moments of staring at her Ranma turned towards the others. 'Let's see Kasumi seems confused, Nabiki's shaking her head, Soun and Genma seem to be trying to keep themselves from lashing out at me, and moth... Nodoka looks like she trying to hold in a... smile?'  
  
"Akane, (Nabiki took a short breath) Ranma can't cheat on you because you guys aren't a couple, I thought we went through this last night."  
  
Akane's finger went limp and her head dropped out of embarrassment "Oh right."  
  
"Whatever, let's go Keiko... Ow! and what was that for?" Ranma asked his sister who just yanked his head back.  
  
"Stop calling me Keiko!" she demanded.  
  
"Wha.... Oh, that's right it's 'Ranko' now" Ranma smiled at her.  
  
"Ranko?" asked everyone except Nodoka and Nabiki as they made their way into the restaurant.  
  
"Hey Ran-chan, Ranko... I see you guessed right." Ukyo smiled at the pair.  
  
Ranma rolled his eyes "It doesn't take a genius to figure these guys would tag along, I mean they seem to love making my life difficult... some of them that is" Ranma corrected.  
  
The others had the good graces to blush at the comment.  
  
"Well come on and sit down, I'll fix us all something to eat." Ukyo ushered Ranma and Kei... Ranko to a seat.  
  
The others soon followed filling in a booth and a spare table.  
  
"Yay, I love Ucchan's okonomiyaki, it's the best!" Ranko cheered.  
  
"Well said, Ranko." Ranma ruffled her red hair "Ucchan does make the best, believe me."  
  
"I'm surprised you're still friends with Ukyo. When you left it seemed you hated everybody." Akane pierced Ranma with her gaze... at least she tried to.  
  
Ranma completely ignored Akane and turned back to his sister "So, Ranko you said you wanted to know about my travels?"  
  
"Yep, I want to know everything!"  
  
"Hmm, where should I start... Tell me, what do you already know?"  
  
"I know that you went on a ten year training trip, then you got cursed, then you meet your wife Shampoo, then you came here to Nerima, where you meet your new fiancee Akane... Um, then you beat up her friend Ryouga, and then Shampoo came back to be with you with her Grandmother, but she was upset 'cause you left her at the ... um, alter was it? After a couple of fights with different people, Ucchan came back. After getting Ucchan to be your girlfriend you had some more fights with all kinds of crazy people. Like Ryu Kumon, and some monster named after underwear, um let's see, a dragon lady or was it a guy, and even a firebird! And after every thing you and Akane tried to get married but because you already had a wife and a girlfriend you couldn't get married. Oh yeah, and your curse turns you into a girl when you get wet." Ranko beamed at her brother.  
  
Ranma on the other hand had a HUGE sweatdrop on his head. "Um right... Just how did you find all this out?"  
  
"Well, Shiro's dad told me some, and some of the older kids used to tell stories, and auntie Nabiki and Ucchan told me a little." Ranko answered while rubbing her chin, seemingly in thought.  
  
"I see." Ranma couldn't help but smile at Ranko's small form trying to look studious. "And did anyone tell about everything that went on after I tried to... marry Akane?"  
  
"Nope, no one will ever tell me." Ranko crossed her arms in exasperation.  
  
"Here you guys go." Ukyo placed food in front of everyone.  
  
"Okay I guess I'll start after the attempted wedding. Now Ranko, I'm not going to sugarcoat anything so this isn't going to sound nice at all." Ranma noted Ranko baffled expression "I mean I'm going to be honest and tell you exactly what happened no matter who it makes look bad, including myself. I'm not sure you'll still feel the same way about everybody after I'm finished. Are you sure you want me to tell you."  
  
Ranko looked at everyone else's face trying to get an idea of what to say, her mom looked sad, her dad and Mr. Tendo looked worried, and everyone else had various levels of shame on their faces.  
  
Ranko quickly remembered when she decided to take the nickname of Ranko over her real name of Keiko. She had been confused over the conflicting stories about her secret hero Ranma. Some stories claimed he was a perverted boy who loved to hurt people and could change himself into a redheaded women named Ranko. Some people believed Ranma was a young man who had to deal with many hardships thanks to situations he couldn't control, such as a curse to turn into a women, and people coming for revenge out of the woodworks. While others said he was just a conceited, egotistic, womanizing, dumb jock that was punished for his ways with a curse to turn into a women.  
  
Eventually she decided to find out the truth about him. She hoped he was the honorable and brave warrior that some of the people believed him to be. So she asked the only person she trusted to give her a truthful answer, the chef at the 'Ucchan's'. Ukyo was the only person in Nerima who was both a friend and one time enemy to him, and it was rumored that she was even his girlfriend.  
  
After explaining the situation to Ukyo, Keiko was happy to hear that Ukyo actually still communicated with Ranma. Unfortunately, Ukyo wouldn't tell Keiko everything about Ranma, but what she did mention was more than enough to strengthen Keiko's fascination with him. She actually looked up even more to the legendary Ranma after finding out that he was not some kind of Martial arts god, or some other type of perfect person. Instead he was a mere boy who trained his body to be one of the greatest fighters in his generation. A person who had many imperfections but in the end was always willing to help anyone in need. He basically, was just a normal man forced into an abnormal life who persevered with skill, determination, and a little luck. And best of all Ukyo even confirmed the biggest question she had, but was almost afraid to ask... Was his last name really Saotome and was he actually her elder brother. After Ukyo grudgingly admitted he was her brother, also stating the resemblance between Keiko and Ranma's cursed form, as well as how Keiko reminded Ukyo of Ranma when he was her age, Keiko decided to try to be as good as Ranma. A few months later Nabiki slipped out that Nodoka originally wanted to name Keiko after Ranma's cursed form, but Genma wouldn't allow it. However with Genma promising Keiko that she would be as great a martial artist as that Ranma fellow, as Genma would put it, she decided to adopt the name Ranko.  
  
Coming back to the present Ranko realized if she hadn't sought out the truth she might not have ever met Ranma. So with a serious face she looked at her big brother and nodded her head "I want to know the truth."  
  
Ranma smiled at her bravery and began "Even though I left months after the failed wedding, things had begun to spiral out of control for me after fighting Saffron the king of phoenix mountain, and self proclaimed god. I'm assuming that the firebird everyone mentioned I fought was actually him..." Ranko nodded, happy that she hadn't missed a story about Ranma prior to the wedding "Anyway I had started to have strange urges during my fights..."  
  
__________  
  
(That's Right It's Time For A Flashback)  
  
Everyone gave Ranma wide berth back as they headed back to Japan. Even though Ranma's action during his fight with Saffron all but seemed to shout his feelings for Akane, it was his current state that everyone was really worried about. He barely moved from his spot by the railing since they boarded the boat to return to Japan, he hadn't smiled since Akane woke up at Jusendo, he hadn't even spoke more than two words to anyone since the fight for that matter. They all just thought Ranma needed some space to come to terms with his killing of Saffron, they were sure it was eating him up alive. They were only partially right.  
  
Ranma was happy for the peace he was given. If he couldn't have inner peace than he could at least have it surrounding him on the outside, right? 'I not sure what has me more worried. The fact that I'm not extremely regretful about killing Saffron, or the fact that I still find the thought of fighting him to the death again so thrilling and inviting. Who am I kidding, I know I shouldn't worry to much about finishing off Saffron, Someone was dieing and that jerk wouldn't allow them to be saved. As a martial artist it's my duty to help those in need. I'm definitely worried about the fact that I would love to do this again... only without there being an innocent life on the line. Yes, a fight to the finish, both fighter determined to fight till their dieing breath that would be wonderful... Stop!" Ranma slammed his fist into the boat railing while letting his smile drop. He decided he really needed to get some sleep, they would be back in Japan tomorrow.  
  
__________  
  
'I can't believe this crap!' Silently fumed a certain pig-tailed martial artist. Ranma paced back and forth across the roof of the Tendo estate. Ranma was completely pissed off. He was pissed of at his pop, mom, and Mr. Tendo for even trying to pull this off. He was pissed with Kasumi and Nabiki for going along with it. He was pissed at Ukyo and Shampoo for taking it upon themselves to stop it. He was pissed at Ryouga, Mousse, and Happosai for adding insult to injury with the 'spring of drowned boy'. He was pissed with Akane for giving in to their parents instead of trying to wait until they were both ready.  
  
But most of all, the person he truly despised at the moment was no one other than himself. 'I can't believe I just stood there like some lost kid, as everyone else pushed and shoved me in any direction they so pleased. Ukyo and Shampoo had no right to stop the wedding like that, but I don't think anyone else would have done it, not even me, and I know now is not the time for any marriage! That's it I refuse to be some stepping stone for others. It's time I took control of my life.'  
  
Mind made up, Ranma finally entered the dojo for some well needed sleep. 'Things are going to be changing around here.'  
  
The next morning things started as they usually did. Ranma found himself thrown into the pond by his father in panda form, the added panda strength needed to send the boy from the dojo to the pond. Ranma quickly exited the pond and began his daily fight with Genma. After knocking his fat father into the pond, Ranma began making his way towards the house for some, hopefully Kasumi cooked, breakfast. He stopped his trek to the house as he felt his father sneak up behind him, without even thinking, Ranma turned towards him and laid into Genma with a Amaguriken punch. As Genma laid on his back with his eyes twirling Ranma's eyes darted back and forth across the yard. 'Damn, why did I use that attack? it was just a sparring match. Sure the bastard deserves what ever I give him, in fact he's lucky I let him off with just that.' Ranma whole mindset started to return to the state it was in the previous night. Once entering the house Ranma approached the dining table with trepidation 'Okay... where is everybody? Isn't it time for breakfast? Oh please no, not today...' Ranma slowly headed for the kitchen thinking sneaky thoughts. About a foot away from the entrance Ranma felt a cold chill go down his back as he heard voices from inside the kitchen.  
  
"Are you sure that'll taste okay? I really think I should add some extra stuff for flavor."  
  
"Extra stuff? um... what did you have in mind Akane?  
  
"What about some sugar?"  
  
"That's baking powder..."  
  
"Well how about some hot sauce?"  
  
"That's ketchup..."  
  
"What about some duck sauce?"  
  
"That's mustard... Don't you think we should leave the... grits the way it is?"  
  
"Grits? what's that? I'm making soup."  
  
"That's... soup"  
  
'To hell with that!' Ranma thought as he turned away from the kitchen only to run into his mother.  
  
"Good morning Ranma."  
  
"Morning Mom, I'm going to take my bath then head out, so tell... Kasumi I'll be missing breakfast." Ranma tried to squeeze by his mother.  
  
"But Ranma, Kasumi isn't making breakfast, Akane is. I'm sure she would love for you to try some, you wouldn't want to make your fiancee upset would you?" Nodoka laced her question with steel.  
  
"O-Of course not..." Ranma blurted out 'Damn today was supposed to be different!'. As soon as Ranma say his mother smile at him he figured maybe things weren't so bad anyway.  
  
"Why doesn't the soup come out the pan Kasumi?"  
  
"I'm not really sure Akane..."  
  
'I've been wrong before.'  
  
__________  
  
"Ha, 'eat her cooking' she says, 'she'll be happy you did' she says, 'It's not manly to thrown up your fiancee's cooking in front of her and her family' she says. Well I don't care what she says I am not putting my self through that any more." Ranma yelled to blue sky from the roof of Furinken High. After finishing a lunch thankfully prepared by Kasumi, Ranma spotted Ryouga heading for Akane. "Wow, the pig's back already, he must have been trying to leave Nerima." Ranma chuckled at his own weak joke. His laugh trailed off as he watched Akane smile and run over to Ryouga, while Ryouga gave Akane something in a box. After Akane opened up whatever it was, it was hard to tell from his distance, she gave Ryouga a hug.  
  
"Damn you Ryouga. Always trying claim what's mine for yourself. Well I'm about to teach you a lesson you'll never forget." Ranma smiled as he jumped to the nearest window seal and continued down.  
  
By the time Ranma reached the bottom which didn't take any time at all physically. But mentally was more than enough time for Ranma to come back to himself. 'There I go again letting myself lose control and getting angrier than I should. First I enjoy fighting Saffron to the death, then I fly off the handle after the failed wedding, followed by using one of my more special techniques on pop during a regular sparing match, and now I'm about to go beat up Ryouga just for talking to Akane. I need to get a hold of myself, and soon before I blow up at some body.'  
  
While Ranma was contemplating how to gain control over his new and dangerous urgings, Ryouga spotted him. After crying out his challenge Ryouga was further pushed on by the fact that Ranma was ignoring him. 'Now that he's beat Saffron he thinks I'm no challenge. I'll show him who's the strongest!' Ryouga throw several bandanas at Ranma, Ryouga almost smirked as the bandanas flew ever closer to the unmoving Ranma.  
  
Ranma blinked as he felt a warning of danger flare within him. Ranma spotted the projectiles heading for him ducked them all. He barely had time to roll as Ryouga crashed into the ground where he stood only moments before.  
  
"So now you're paying attention... good." Ryouga sneered at Ranma.  
  
"I don't feel like fighting right now, so why don't you try again later." Ranma brushed off Ryouga and began walking away.  
  
"What are you doing Ranma?! You can't just walk away from a fight!" Akane called out.  
  
'Moron, first she gets upset if I beat Ryouga, and when I decide not to fight him she still gets on my case. What does she want me to do, loose to him... maybe, that just might be it. She actually wants me to lose to that pig.' Ranma felt his anger return. "You're absolutely right Akane, I can't just walk away can I" Ranma turned towards Ryouga with a cold look in his eyes. "Alright Ryouga if you want a fight I'll give it to you, but be warned, I'm no longer holding back."  
  
Ryouga was at first shocked to see Ranma's face but as he heard Ranma's warning he began to bristle. "Holding back! Yeah right you couldn't hurt me with your best punch! there's no way you've been holding back." Ryouga charged Ranma after delivering his lines.  
  
"Why don't I prove it to you." Ranma replied as he waited for Ryouga to close the distance. Once Ryouga moved close enough he went for the breaking point technique, only to have his hands swept away from the ground by Ranma's right foot followed up with Ranma still low to the ground continuing to spin after the sweep into a devastating backhand. As Ryouga's head was knocked sideways, Ranma grabbed his shirt with his free right hand and connected with his amaguriken to the temple of Ryouga's head with his left in less than 3 seconds. After letting go of Ryouga's shirt Ranma stood over Ryouga "I bet you wondering why those punches hurt more than usual... Well let's just say I didn't just ignore using my ki to strengthen my body when we started learning ki projectiles." Ranma slowly stepped back as Ryouga climbed to his feet. "If you really want to keep up with me Ryouga you're going to have to do more than just learn a lot of tricks. Your going to have understand them inside and out, otherwise you'll always be limited."  
  
"Shut up! Don't you dare tell me how to fight!" Ryouga screamed before joining the fight once again. Before Ryouga could even throw another punch Ranma connected with a kick to Ryouga throat. Ryouga staggered back.  
  
"And don't YOU dare challenge me without knowing your proper place!" Ranma growled at Ryouga.  
  
Everyone in the schoolyard was stunned by the change of intensity of the fight. Sure Ranma was always spouting off about being the best and Ryouga always screamed his "Die Saotome" line. But this fight was completely unlike any the two had ever had.  
  
"Stop it Ranma your hurting him!" Akane screamed. She was tempted to go out there and break up the fight as usual but something about Ranma was different, very different.  
  
"Alright Ranma, you want to get serious than let's go." Ryouga replied in calm tone.  
  
Everyone was really starting to panic now. Ranma was looking really scary and Ryouga was acting calm, If those weren't a sign of the end of the world then... well... then it sure as hell meant something really bad was about to happen.  
  
Ukyo watched Ranma with a growing sense of dread, this was a side of Ranma she had never seen. She hoped she would never have to face this version of him.  
  
Ryouga slowly approached Ranma again, while in a tight defensive stance. However he was fighting with himself not to just charge in as Ranma stood there almost begging for Ryouga to attack him. Ranma continued to stand up straight with his arms by his side as Ryouga inched closer. 'I'll finally show you your place Ryouga and I'll show Akane that you'll never beat me!' Ranma finally entered his own stance, surprisingly he entered what looked like a loose boxing stance while bouncing from foot to foot. One thing that Ranma always found frustrating was that with as many weird matches where he ended up fighting under restricting rules or fights where special techniques were involved he was never able to really show how skilled in hand to hand he was. It was always ki attacks of some sort that decided the matches lately, due to his inexperience with them. Now that he could really hold his own in that regard it was time to bring it back to the basics. Ranma was going to take Ryouga back to martial arts 101.  
  
Ryouga finally attacked with straight punch to backhand finishing with a mid level kick combo. Ranma in turn smacked the first fist away and ducked the backhand while kicking the Ryouga's leg with the bottom of his foot. Ryouga decided to throw a high kick followed by a axe kick towards Ranma's shoulder as his next attack. Ducking the high kick Ranma quickly sprung towards Ryouga and caught him with his leg raised for his axe kick. Holding Ryouga by the chest, pinning both arms and one leg Ranma suplexed Ryouga.  
  
"Damn, Ranma's really trying to kick his ass." Daisuke pointed out to his partner in crime.  
  
"Yeah, I would have expected Ryouga to use a move like that before Ranma." Hiroshi countered.  
  
"Well, his style is Anything Goes... and I don't know what Ryouga's style is." Daisuke was starting to get into the conversation now.  
  
"Would you two shut up!" called someone from in the crowd.  
  
Nabiki was frozen in place, originally she was going to take bets but she almost immediately sensed something different about Ranma. Now Nabiki was afraid she would need to call and book a hospital room for Ranma or Ryouga... or both. 'Ranma can't seriously expect to beat Ryouga in a slug fest does he, then again Ranma did say he was going to stop holding back...'  
  
Ryouga slammed his fist on the ground, the slam didn't really hurt him, but his leg was sore from the position he was in when he was slammed. Ryouga took a deep breath 'Alright my high endurance for pain isn't giving me the usual advantage, I'll go for the Shi Shi Hokodan' So saying Ryouga got into position.  
  
Ranma shook his head 'Ryouga always was a little to straightforward.' Instead of standing back and trying to match ki attacks with him, Ranma just rushed forward as soon as Ryouga opened his mouth and filled it with his fist.  
  
"Damn..." trailed off more than one student.  
  
Ms. Hinako was hiding behind some of the students while still in her child persona. "S.. Sc... Scary!"  
  
"That's it Ranma! You won't make a fool out of me!" Ryouga finally tried to reach back to the times when he had to use real skill in a fight instead of just bowling over his opponents. Ryouga unleashed one of his most complex combinations he knew. He feinted a punch to the face while swinging a left cross punch, expecting Ranma to dodge both, he spun with cross into spinning jump kick. After landing from the kick with his back towards Ranma, he waited a fraction of second for Ranma to start to retaliate, before springing into a front flip catching Ranma on the chin. Once hearing Ranma connect with the ground, Ryouga while not missing a beat landed his front flip and quickly went into an even higher black flip hoping to land with his knees in Ranma's gut.  
  
Ryouga was disappointed but not surprised when Ranma rolled out of the way just in the knick of time. While Ranma was still trying to raise Ryouga jumped at him with a flying kick. Ranma dropped back to the floor reacting with his gut instinct as Ryouga flew by.  
  
Ranma, deciding it was time to finish the fight, let Ryouga charge him one last time. Ryouga ran at Ranma and went into a slide in hopes of catching him off guard and snatching Ranma's legs out from under him. Ranma, almost reminiscent of Ryouga, jumped into his own back flip timing it so that he would land only about a foot further than Ryouga. He grabbed Ryouga's shirt while rolling backwards. Pulling Ryouga up and forwards while he himself was falling backwards into the roll, Ranma placed his bent legs under Ryouga and sent him flipping into the air. Ryouga unaccustomed to spending that much time spinning in the air, barely landed upright on his hands and knees.  
  
However, Ranma had actually jumped into the air right after him and shot off a tree branch to land only seconds after Ryouga. Using the added speed from the tree branch and applying just a little of his amaguriken speed, Ranma delivered a knife hand to the back of Ryouga's head. Ranma stood up with a huge grin on his face "Now that was a good fight."  
  
The crowd became silent as they watched Ranma stroll away from the fight with a spring to his step. "Um... do you think that Ryouga guy is alright?" asked someone in the crowd, snapping Akane, Ukyo, and Nabiki out of their trance.  
  
Akane let out sigh of relief as she checked up on him "I think he's just knocked out."  
  
"Still, Ranma did quite a number on him." Nabiki wondered out load "What do you think has gotten into him?" even though she had her own suspicions she wanted to hear their thoughts.  
  
"I think Ranma needs to stop picking on Ryouga, this is the worst time yet!" cried Akane, even though she didn't sound to convinced with her own words.  
  
Ukyo hung her head "He's probably still really upset over the wedding thing. and seeing Ryouga again so soon didn't help."  
  
"I think you may be right." Nabiki looked towards the direction Ranma left in. 'But I have a feeling the status quo around here is about to seriously change.'  
  
__________  
  
Ranma slowly packed his camping gear 'That was intense, I've always tried to shy away from really fighting like that, but I got to admit it was fun. I can't do that anymore, I have to really reign in these urges before it's too late. Hopefully a few weeks away will be all I need.'  
  
Leaving a note on the refrigerator, Ranma headed out. Little did he know that this upcoming training trip would lead him into getting involved with some of the most deadliest fighters alive, and adding himself to the list.  
  
To Be Continued  
  
Next Time: The Evil Intent Ranma's training doesn't go exactly as planned as he learns a new way to cope with his urges other than just suppressing them. His decision will attract the one known as The Supreme Master of the Fist, along with Ranma's new master.  
  
quail12001@yahoo.com 


	2. The Evil Intent

The Dark Side of the Art By: Q A Ranma 1/2 - Street Fighter - King of Fighters crossover Disclaimer: None of the character within this story belong to me, they belong to Rumiko Takahashi, Capcom, and SNK respectively.  
  
The Evil Intent  
  
Ranma paused in his story to turn towards the Ucchan's entrance.  
  
"What are you looking at?" Ranko asked her brother.  
  
"I think we'll be having another guest..." Ranma tensed for a moment then relaxed.  
  
"What's the matter you martial art's sense tingling?" Nabiki quipped.  
  
"Well as a matter of fact..." Ranma looked at Nabiki before calling out in a slighty teasing tone "Why hello Rose."  
  
As soon as Ranma uttered those words a purpled hair women in a red dress walked in. A rather voluptuous purpled haired women in a red dress actually.  
  
"And hello to you." Rose sauntered up to him "I see everyone is still in one piece."  
  
"We haven't been here that long." Ranma smirked.  
  
"Ahh." Rose smiled "Even though I can guess, do you mind introducing me to your family and friends."  
  
"Yes Ranma, please introduce us." came a frosty tone from a certain tomboy.  
  
"Very well, I would like you all to meet Rose. She's helping me prepare a tournament to replace the 'King of Fighters' for this year." Ranma gestured to said women. "And Rose let me introduce you to my sister Kei... Ranko, Mrs. Saotome, Mr. Saotome or Mr. Panda if you'd like, Mr. Tendo, and his three daughters there... Akane, Kasumi, and Nabiki. And the young women back at the counter is my old friend and owner of this establishment, Ukyo Kounji." he pointed to each person as he introduced them.  
  
"I suppose it's a pleasure to meet you all." Rose did a slight bow.  
  
"So what brings you here Rose?" Ranma decided to get straight to the point.  
  
"Can't I just come to see you?" Rose pouted, and Ranma raised an eyebrow in return. "Fine, fine, I've been able to reach him and it seems he would love to make an appearance in the finals."  
  
"Good. That should get a lot of other people to join." Ranma nodded to himself. "For some reason I don't think you came here just to tell me that though."  
  
"True. I was hoping to hear about your 'mysterious' past. Oh, and I wanted to tell you that Chizuru wasn't able to find a few of the fighters. Even though I probably could, I think it would be better if you contacted them. Here's the list, I also asked her to let you deliver the invitation to these returning teams." Rose materialized a slip of paper and handed to Ranma.  
  
"You're not getting lazy, are you?" Ranma muttered while taking the slip.  
  
"What did you say?" Rose's voice was a bit too sweet.  
  
"Don't worry about it, I'll handle it, besides I think I'd like to meet a few of these people." Ranma smiled.  
  
"I figure you would." Rose smiled back.  
  
"Come on Ranma get back to the story!" Ranko pleaded.  
  
"Wait, what do you mean you're setting up a tournament!" Nabiki asked.  
  
"What?" Ranma seemed confused.  
  
"How can you afford to set up a tournament?" Nabiki seemed just as confused.  
  
"Oh, that. I'm not really paying for it." And Ranma left it at that. "So where was I...Is something wrong Rose?" Ranma's voice had just a bit of worry in it.  
  
"...."  
  
"Rose... Hey Rose... I hate it when she does this." Ranma gave up getting Rose's attention. Past experiences taught him that it was ultimately a futile effort. But the way she was staring at Ranko made Ranma nervous.  
  
"That's interesting...Tell me little one, has your father been teaching you the martial arts?" Rose snapped out of her trance. Ranma felt that perhaps it would have been better for her to have stayed in it, instead of saying 'that's interesting'. As far as Ranma could tell, things that Rose found interesting everyone else found scary and/or dangerous.  
  
"Yep, Daddy's going to make me as strong as Ranma." Ranko piped up.  
  
Rose mock gasped "Please, one Ranma is enough."  
  
"Ha, ha. Seriously what's wrong?" Ranma watched as Rose gave him that look. 'Oh boy, I going to have to talk to her in private.'  
  
"Nothing really, don't worry about it." Rose smiled at everyone. "She just looks like a mini-version of Ranma's cursed form. It's so cute!"  
  
Ranma's eye ever so slightly twitched. 'And things were bad when she thought Ranko was just interesting NOW she thinks she's cute...' Ranma was never sure if the fact that he knew this side of Rose was a good thing or not.  
  
"Oh, I remember the first time I saw Ranma in his cursed form..."  
  
Ranma decided knowing it was most definitely not a good thing, man o'man what he wouldn't give to just know the mysterious and ominous side of Rose.  
  
"*Ahem* Sorry to interrupt you, but I believe I'm the one telling stories around here."  
  
"Oh sorry, go ahead." Rose smiled at him.  
  
"Say.. how did you know we would be here?" Akane asked, she knew there was something weird about this women from the start. 'Like any women could think that Ranma's girl body was cute.'  
  
"Good guess?" Rose ventured.  
  
"Riiiight, a guess..." Ranma muttered before speaking for everyone to hear again. "Anyway back to the story."  
  
"Finally!" came from the little red head. __________  
  
(If you haven't already guessed... Flashback)  
  
Akane stormed into the house with a full head of steam "Where is he!"  
  
Soun and Genma looked at each.  
  
[I feel sorry for the boy, she's really upset] a sign read.  
  
"I wonder what he did this time..." Soun spoke to his furry little... er big friend.  
  
Nabiki entered the home a few moments after her sister. She came to a stop as her father called for her.  
  
"Yeah Dad?"  
  
"What's wrong with Akane?" Soun asked, hoping that his middle daughter wouldn't charge him for the information.  
  
It seemed fortune was smiling on Soun today, as his daughter answered his question for free "Ranma beat the crap out of Ryouga. You should have seen it, Ranma was like an animal." Nabiki was still a bit shocked at the fight.  
  
"An a-animal?!" Soun stuttered.  
  
[Not the NEKO-KEN?!] screamed the sign... well, the words were wrote really big...  
  
"Huh... oh don't worry he didn't use the neko-ken. He just beat him up the old fashion way." Nabiki assured the grown ups.  
  
"Oh my, is Ryouga alright?" Kasumi's voice drifted from the kitchen.  
  
Nabiki peeked in at her "Yeah, he got up about ten minutes later chasing after Ranma... he actually went in the correct direction this time, I guess that's because he didn't see which way Ranma had left."  
  
"That's good. Would you mind telling Akane that Ranma left a note saying he was going on a short training trip." Kasumi asked her sister.  
  
"Sure."  
  
Akane sat on her bed with her pet pig in her arms. "What was that dumb jerk thinking p-chan? What did he mean by 'knowing your proper place' I always knew he was conceited, but that was odd even for him. Nabiki and Ukyo think he's just upset about the wedding... Well I got upset sometimes but you don't see going around beating people up do you?" Luckily, as a pig, Ryouga couldn't answer her.  
  
Nabiki stood at Akane's doorway with a huge sweatdrop 'it's really impressive how blind Akane is...' "Hey Akane, Kasumi just told me that Ranma left for a training trip... she says Ranma left a note."  
  
"So that jerk thinks he can just beat up Ryouga and leave huh? Well he better not have said where he went to train because if I find out where he is..." Akane held up a fist.  
  
"Okay...." Nabiki backed away as Akane's aura began to flicker around the room. "Bye" Nabiki uncharacteristically ran away from her sister 'After Ranma went crazy I ain't taking no chances...'  
  
Akane calmed down shortly after Nabiki's abrupt departure, and headed downstair to take a look at the note. After receiving it from a cooking Kasumi, not that she does much else mind you, Akane read it to her self aloud.  
  
Dear um... Whoever, I'm leaving for a few weeks to work on some new moves. I'll be back before you know it so DON'T come looking for me.  
  
Akane fumed 'Like anyone was really going to go look for him... I wonder if Nabiki knows where he's... Arghh! WHAT am I thinking?!'  
  
"A-are you alright Akane?" Kasumi asked her sister who was currently shaking her head wildly while standing in the middle of the kitchen.  
  
"What.... sorry, yeah I'm fine. there was something in my ear... I mean hair, yeah in my hair... why would I shake my head if something was in my ear right?... Hahahaha..." Akane began to laugh nervously.  
  
"Perhaps you should go get in some practice Akane." Kasumi recommended.  
  
"Yeah I guess I should."  
  
__________  
  
Cologne sat in the back of the kitchen to her restaurant. She was currently thinking about the second most troublesome male she knew. Earlier some of the school children came in to stare at Sham...whoops, came to partake of the Cat Cafes' delicious meals, and she overheard them mention Ranma's sound defeat of Ryouga. For some reason she couldn't explain, Cologne felt uneasy about the news. However she couldn't put her finger on why, eventually she decided just to tell her granddaughter to keep a closer eye on Ranma.  
  
On the other hand Shampoo had a distinctly different feel for the situation. 'Darn why couldn't I have been there to see Ranma fight Ryouga today.' Shampoo had been daydreaming about seeing Ranma savagely attacking his opponent, his body vigorously flexing as he performed vicious acts of violence (thankfully she was daydreaming it instead of trying to say it...).  
  
Mousse, however, was more inclined towards Cologne's thinking. 'I sure hope Ranma's isn't as worked up when I fight him...' somehow the thought of just not fighting Ranma never crossed his mind...  
  
__________  
  
P-chan sat on Akane's bed in silence... not that he made that much noise when he was in Akane's room alone normally, but still. 'I can't believe I let Ranma get the jump on me like that. If I had known he was really going to be that serious from the beginning I wouldn't have been caught off guard like I had. Still if Ranma is going to train to become even better than so will I! I'll show him who's limited! I'll get my hand to hand skill back up to par, and see what I can do with my Shi shi Hokodan... yes, that's it, Ranma won't know what hit him.'  
  
__________  
  
Ukyo found it harder and harder to concentrate on anything when she was as worked up as she was. She remembered the look Ranma gave Ryouga before the fight, and it chilled her to the bone. Ranma had always been rather up beat when they were younger, and in fact seemed that way most of the time nowadays, that was one of the reasons no one ever took anything they did around Nerima seriously.  
  
If Ranma could take having bus loads of fiancees after him with an equal amount of rivals, a mother who might very well kill him over a foolish contract, a curse to turn him into a girl, as well as a father who weather any one would go as far as to admit it or not was somewhat abusive, all with a smile and a wave than what could possibly be 'going too far'. But apparently bombing a wedding had made the list.  
  
'I sure hope Ran-chan won't stay mad to long... I don't know if Nerima could survive otherwise...'  
  
__________  
  
Things at the Kuno mansion were rather crazy... however, since that's actually quite normal will leave that one alone.  
  
__________  
  
Happosai sat on the roof on the Tendo dojo. He was currently thinking about one Ranma Saotome. 'Has Ranma finally touched the true Anything Goes power. Has he seen the true potential our style possesses. Has he decided to thank me for creating it by modeling one of my collectibles...'  
  
Perhaps we should have left this one alone as well...  
  
__________  
  
"IF I SNEEZE ONE MORE DAMN TIME I SWEAR SOMEONE'S GOING TO PAY!" Ranma yelled to the heavens.  
  
Calming down Ranma finished setting his tent. He wasn't sure how to go about suppressing his anger like he had been doing since shortly after the whole Neko-ken training. Somehow ever since his victory in China his usual methods of self denial wasn't working. He could no longer lie to himself that he wasn't really angry with this person or that person, he could no longer write off an surprise attack as a training exercise. So if he couldn't deal with his anger that way then how else could he do it?  
  
'Meditation! Sure that's what all the older guys did right? They meditated... Some of those guys must have been really angry, I think I remember some of them meditating for hours on end. At least I hope the reason they meditated that long was because they were really angry, instead that being the normal amount of time for meditation...' Ranma cringed at the thought.  
  
"Oh well, might as well give it a try" Ranma spoke to no one.  
  
-Two days later-  
  
Ranma slowly woke up against a tree, a familiar position for him. 'As much as I like the fact that I can sleep as long as I like... I'm supposed to be Meditating!  
  
Ranma once again found himself getting upset. With the only thing around to take it out on, Ranma punched the large tree as hard as he could. As he watched the tree fall he couldn't help but feel some off the anger leaving him. 'Could that work..'  
  
Ranma walked around searching for any sturdier object to pound on. After collecting a few boulders he began to unleash as much pent up frustration as he could, hoping to burn out his anger.  
  
After several hours of destroying boulders, finding new ones, and destroying them again. Ranma finally stopped for the night. While cooking, or boiling water as some people might call it, Ranma inspected his fists. They were rather bloody and sore, he couldn't help but compare himself to Ryouga 'I bet his hands would still be fine, damn breaking point....' Ranma let a small smile cross his face. 'This'll give Ryouga something to freak over... But it'll hurt like hell.'  
  
-Three days later-  
  
"Ow...." Ranma swung bath and forth, upside down, and groaning in pain. 'Maybe Akane and Pop were mistaken about the breaking point training...' The only thing keeping him from giving up was the fact that he actually was getting tougher. The very fist time the boulder hit him full on he almost passed out. Now it just really hurts...a lot.  
  
After pulling himself together, as well as upright, Ranma continued the training. Three swings later Ranma finally mastered the breaking point technique. 'I wonder if I should continue to toughen my body for a few more days... I might as well.' And so the hurting continued.  
  
-Two days later-  
  
"Enough is enough." Ranma was starting to get bored with the training, he body was more than tough enough to stand against Ryouga for awhile. True, he didn't have Ryouga's natural endurance, the breaking point training at least gave him the ability to hold his own. However, now Ranma wanted to increase his strength. While pumping his body full of ki was useful an all he wanted to increase his natural strength.  
  
So for the rest of his training trip he would be using the remaining boulders as weights. Since he hadn't completely taken down the rope he set up for the breaking point training, he simply placed a new boulder in it and began pulling the rope one handed a couple of hundred times each arm. After getting down with his arms he would tie it to his legs and continue.  
  
Now the strengthening exercises did not take the entire day. When not lifting, Ranma continued to gather as much anger as possible and convert it into energy before experimenting with different type of attacks. He replaced his Mouko Takabishi attack with a angry ki based attack, which seemed incredibly stronger, he also played around with combining the forbidden techniques with his now black aura of anger.  
  
As Ranma continued to use his new aura in various ways he was ignorant to the danger using such dark energy was to the soul. He also was ignorant of the fact that he was akin to a beacon, due to his outputting of energy, to a fighter of incredibly dark power.  
  
-Two weeks later-  
  
Even though the Ranma that walked down the streets of Nerima looked the same, some of the inhabitants couldn't help but feel worry as they watched him stroll down the street.  
  
Ranma, for the most part, was oblivious to the odd stares he was receiving. He was to excited about his growth in overall ability to notice. Even though he hadn't created anything new with the forbidden techniques, the fact that his new ki attack, which he still hadn't named, as well as the katchu tenshin amaguriken had become stronger as well as even faster for the latter, kept his spirits high.  
  
His good mood took a nose dive when he heard the scariest sound known to man... a 'meow'. Actually, even though he would never admit it, the sound a cat made was not the scariest sound to him. Beyond a shadow of doubt the worst thing for him to ever hear was something he heard a lot. Is was only one word, one word that never accompanied anything good, one word that doomed his life before he even knew it... and that one word was 'fiancee'.  
  
But back to the matter at hand, Ranma froze in mid step. Even as he turned to the sound he was begging himself not to look. Of course Ranma looked and was introduced to the sight he wouldn't wish on his worst enemy, partially due to the fact that it probably wouldn't accomplish anything but scaring Ranma instead. Slowly stepping away Ranma briskly walked away from the feline. Ranma's walk quickly moved up into a light jog as the creature continued to follow him. Finally saying to heck with dignity Ranma broke out into a run, only to have his pursuer cling to he leg when he almost ran an elderly women over.  
  
'Damn, why is it that these cats seem bound and determined to hound me?! I know dogs are supposed to be able to smell fear, but cats? Can these beasts actually tell that I know the Neko-ken?' those were the thoughts Ranma used in an attempt to keep his mind from succumbing to the Neko-ken. Not even those thoughts were enough to block out the fear that came with encountering the bane of his existence though. For once however, a new thought was introduced, a thought that would finally shine a light of hope... well maybe not hope exactly, but it would oppose the fear.  
  
'This is pathetic! Why am I so afraid?' Ranma began to argue with himself.  
  
'Because these are the same creatures that tortured me day after day!'  
  
'But I'm bigger than they are, I shouldn't fear them!'  
  
'I've always been bigger than them though, and yet they still were able to torture me'  
  
'That was because of stupid pops!'  
  
'Pop's wasn't in the pit'  
  
'But I was tied up back then.'  
  
'So! that didn't mean it didn't hurt!'  
  
'I've gotten bigger and stronger since then.' Ranma tried to reason with himself.  
  
'that may be, but that doesn't mean it won't still hurt!'  
  
'Damn it look here! So what if it hurts! Ryouga's punches hurt, Akane's mallets hurt, Ukyo's spatula hurts, Shampoo's bike hurts, Cologne's cane hurts, and I get hit with them all the time! But I'm not afraid of them, so why should I be afraid of CATS?! I said things were going to change... And I'll be damned it this isn't one of them. I. Control. My. LIFE!'  
  
*Snap!*  
  
Ranma opened his eyes at the sound, and let his gaze travel to his right hand. Ranma slowly, almost reluctantly, began to realize what was in his hand. A cat, a black cat, a black motionless cat, a black motionless cat with it's head bent at an awkward angle. Ranma finally allowed his mind to voice it's conclusion... he was holding a cat with a broken neck... a neck HE broke.  
  
Dropping the animal in his hand, Ranma took a quick glance at his surroundings. Ranma was relieved to find that somehow he had ran into a empty alley. Heading home by rooftops, he decided it was time to due something about his fear and continue to work on his control.  
  
Quickly reaching the Tendo home, Ranma entered without much fanfare. "I'm home." Ranma called out even though he could care less if anybody heard him. 'I need some time to do some real mental exercising if I want to gain control on both my fear and anger.'.  
  
As Ranma made his way into the family room he was besieged by his uncute fiancee. "It's about time you got back, leaving for three weeks without telling me... I mean anyone goodbye! Poor Ryouga was looking all over for you."  
  
Still not really paying attention to anyone he waved her off "What are you, my mom? I don't got to tell you everwhere I go..." Before he could even get to her second point another voice interrupted.  
  
"True, but I AM your mother, and you didn't tell me you were leaving either." Nodoka spoke in a calm voice. "I've been so worried about you" she switched to her worried mother routine.  
  
"S-sorry, I did leave a letter..." Ranma spluttered.  
  
"A letter. I'm your mother, you don't just give me a letter saying your leaving." She switched back to her original calm tone.  
  
'I think she keeps changing her attitude just to keep my off gaurd.' Ranma was batting a perfect game with his guesses that day, first the whole neko- ken attracting cats, and know finally starting to grasp a little of his mother's ways. Unfortunately Ranma didn't know he was right about any of these. "But I always take little training trips you know. I didn't think anyone would really get worried."  
  
"Well I accept your apology, but you should apologize to Akane too, she was also worried."  
  
"I wasn't worried about that jerk!" Akane blushed.  
  
Ranma, of course, was oblivious. "See mom, she wasn't worried. I'm going to go wash up and relax in the dojo until dinner time."  
  
After making his escape, Ranma methodically began washing her body before submerging into tub. Regaining his manhood Ranma relaxed in the tub. Without even looking he knew his right hand was still shaking. 'With all the cats in this area I can't take a chance with trying to cope with my fears... I HAVE to deal with it now.' Feeling himself becoming upset he tried to lighten the mood. 'And if I don't get control I'll just blame it on the 'Cat' Cafe...' Ranma chuckled to himself before trailing off 'there's something about the cat cafe that's tugging at the back of my mind...'.  
  
"Shampoo!"  
  
*Bam*  
  
"Where is she!"  
  
Ranma jumped up at the sound of the door being slammed open. He was speechless a moment as he saw Akane standing in the doorway seething. "What are you doing in here?" Ranma demanding from Akane 'the nerve of this girl. Always getting mad at me for being a 'pervert' and here she comes barging in on me! Wait a minute, where is who?'  
  
"Out with it Ranma, where's Shampoo!" Akane bore her eyes into him 'I can't believe Ranma tried to sneak Shampoo in the house as soon as he got back! I was lucky to have heard him on my way to my room.'  
  
"I don't know, hiding under the water maybe? or perhaps in the sink? Oh I know she's under the bucket." Was his sarcastic reply. He started to sweatdrop as Akane checked the sink and the bucket. Once Akane started heading for the tub Ranma spoke up again. "I was joking, Shampoo isn't even here you uncute tomboy." Ranma started to laugh until he was shoved aside as Akane peered into the tub.  
  
"Hey! I said she wasn't in here!" Ranma was starting to get upset.  
  
"Like I'll believe you." Akane shot back.  
  
Taking a deep breath to get some control over himself, Ranma watched as Akane took on last look around the room, then narrowing her eyes at him. Ranma raised an eyebrow in return as Akane left the room.  
  
__________  
  
A refreshed but somewhat irritated Ranma sat in the dojo crossed legged. He was determined to do something about the cat fist. Mentally bracing himself Ranma began to recall the whole traumatizing experience while using his darker ki to keep himself from freaking out.  
  
'First, Pop tied me up with that stupid rope and that food. Moron, he should have been suspicous about a technique that required you to be completely restrained. Even the breaking point lets you use a finger. Then he dumped me into a dark pit with all those... those... scary cats with their glowing eyes' Ranma unconsciously shuddered. 'No Ranma, they were regular cats nothing to be scared of, you know that now' Ranma let the now familiar angry ki flare up a bit. 'But the worst part is when they attacked, they ripped into my skin over and over again... No, no, no they scratched and bit me, I wasn't that hurt when it was over. I was just to shocked and scared to notice. But still Pops put me in there again and again, then he had the nerve to get angry with me for being afraid, not even knowing that being afraid was part of the training! The bastard just threw me in some more even as I begged and pleaded for him to stop! I should have really gave it to him afterwards, now that I think about it, that old lady even gave me back to that fool after learning what he did to me! All this time... I've been grateful to that old bat! and for what giving me a pat on the head before letting my father continue his insane training ideas on me! Damn her and him!'  
  
It took him a good a five hours until he was able to recount the whole event with out any problems. 'Wow, I never could do this with the soul of ice.' Ranma decided a quick wash up was in order, even though he hadn't done much physically he was extremely sweaty.  
  
Once he made his way into the house Kasumi called out to him "Dinner will be ready in about twenty minutes."  
  
"Thanks" Ranma rushed to clean himself off.  
  
Kasumi watched Ranma head upstairs with a troubled look 'was that scary glow coming from the dojo really Ranma?'  
  
Sitting at the Go board Soun and Genma were completely still, both having felt the incredible dark power coming from the dojo, and appearently from Ranma.  
  
__________  
  
Everyone was sitting at the dinner table with the exception of Kasumi and Nodoka who were still carrying in the food. When the two finally joined the rest at the table the meal was started.  
  
"So Ranma what new moves did you learn?" Nabiki the ever curious one asked.  
  
Ranma smiled "I got the whole breaking point thing down even got the whole toughen the body part. Plus I experimented with some of my old moves."  
  
"What's the matter? scared that Ryouga'll come back to beat the crap out of you for what you did to him?" Nabiki grinned back at him.  
  
"What do you mean 'for what you did to him', It was a fight plain and simple. Sure he might come back to try to win the next time but he shouldn't have taken it to personal." Ranma stopped to consider who he was talking about. "Then again I could be mistaken." Ranma didn't seem to embarrassed about his slip but instead was grinning. "If the fool comes back without doing some heavy duty training... then I'll just have to give him another lesson." Ranma's grin was starting to unsettle a few people.  
  
"Teach him another lesson! You really tried to hurt Ryouga last time!" Akane cried.  
  
'She would be worried about him' "Please it'll take a lot more than that to seriously hurt him, I was only able to knock him out thanks to well placed attacks. I bet he wasn't even all that shook up when he came back to." Ranma replied nonchalantly. "It's a martial arts thing, you probably wouldn't understand..." Ranma gave Akane a wicked grin. "Oops, did I say that out loud?"  
  
Nabiki blinked 'I know Ranma realizes how much Akane hates when he questions her ability at martial arts, so why is he egging her on so much? He's never gone this far before...'  
  
Akane was shocked to say the least "W-What?!"  
  
"Never mind, don't worry about it." Ranma smiled good naturedly at her. Finishing his food at an almost record breaking speed Ranma headed back to the dojo.  
  
After taking a few seconds to replay what Ranma said Akane exploded in anger "What do you mean I wouldn't understand! I'm a martial artist too, you know!"  
  
Ranma stopped in his path towards the dojo. Slowly he faced Akane, after staring at her a long moment he spoke up. "Yeah, sorry about that." He then turned back around and walked away.  
  
Akane's mind was in a whirl 'What's gotten in to him?'  
  
Everyone else at the table looked at one another.  
  
Ranma was berating himself as he made his way to the dojo 'I was out of line back there... Akane and Ryouga are friends, nothing more right? I mean just because she treats him better than almost any other guy I know, while she treats me worser than she treats Kuno doesn't mean anything, right?' Ranma snorted 'Oh yeah that's great reasoning...'  
  
__________  
  
-One month later-  
  
The whole town of Nerima was filled with tension, the bubbly chinese waitress at the Cat Cafe was rather subdued nowadays, the friendly chef at the Ucchan's was barely able to fake a smile, the Tendo girls seemed to be worried over something, the nice katana wielding women seemed preoccupied with something as well, and no one had seen hide nor hair of the panty thief.  
  
Yes, all of Nerima was holding it's breath. Soon, they new, something was going to happen, and they all new who it would probably start with... that Ranma boy. He was always getting involved with something.  
  
Said boy was walking out of the dojo whistling to himself. The past month was rather peaceful for him. He hadn't run into Ryouga yet, he hadn't spared with his old man since the second day of his return... actually calling it a spar was a bit of a stretch as Ranma showed off his new toughness and strength in a humiliating, for Genma, demonstration. Genma not wanting to be showed up again, especially in front of his wife, wisely stopped attacking Ranma in the mornings.  
  
During the nights, Ranma continued working on improving his abilities. He snuck cats into the dojo, letting them walk around for the first couple of nights, before he started to lightly pet them, then moving on to openly holding them for long periods of time. It took longer than he expected due to the fact that he aura kept scaring them off. He had to actually learn to hide it from almost all senses to finally get the cats to come near him. It worked out better than he planned though since it actually took ki strength to hide it, making it an ideal exercise to increase it's strength. He also used the old ball and chain his father had stowed away as a replacement for weights, until he bought some of his own.  
  
'It's funny, I don't remember ever having enough money to buy things like I do now...' Ranma thought to himself. 'Man, a month without my fiancees or rivals bothering me and still being able to eat good meals cooked by Kasumi and Mom. Taking control of my life was a great idea. Sure everybody has been kind of worried about me, more like worried of me... but then again they have good reason.' Even though he hadn't been bothered by rivals or been forced to deal with anything pertaining to his fiancees, he wasn't exactly left alone. Akane still tried to cook for him, he was sure she was just using him as a test subject. Having taken control of his life Ranma refused to be used as a safety measure. Needless to say his decision was meet with much disapproval. In fact there was a stand off at the dining table. Ranma eventually won the stand off with a clever, actually it was a rather simple, ploy "Akane..." he began "I know you're trying to win me over with your cooking" then he proceeded to let himself be interuppted.  
  
"I'm not trying to win you over!" Akane nearly screamed 'how conceited can he get?!' Akane was getting really frustrated with Ranma's refusal.  
  
"Well, if you're not trying to win me over with your cooking then you shouldn't keep the others from being able to try it too. I mean why let me get the honors all the time? You don't want to leave the everyone else out. So why don't you let them taste it first for a while?"  
  
Akane looked over at her family and traded pleading expressions with them. Reading their looks wrong Akane thought they were feeling her pain 'they know I want Ranma to try my cooking first, but they must not be able to think of any way around his reasoning.' In truth the looks they were giving Akane translated to 'Please don't ask us to try your cooking. Do what ever it takes to make Ranma eat it!' Neither side was able to get Ranma back as Akane's taste tester.  
  
'She must know her cooking sucks, that's why she makes me eat it... when she finally makes something edible she'll probably give to Ryouga. After all she never pushes him to eat her cooking like she does to me.' Ranma was surprised that he wasn't getting as angry as usual. 'I must be doing a better job than I thought with handling my anger...or maybe...'  
  
Soun and Genma glanced at the young pig-tailed boy as he walked by once he headed up the stairs they turned back to one another.  
  
"Genma, Ranma hasn't been talking to Akane that often..." Soun said conversationally.  
  
[Yes it has been quite peaceful.] Genma signed.  
  
"I suppose that's true... but I'm worried about the schools." Soun continued.  
  
[I guess the boy has been neglecting his duties to his fiancee.] *flip* [Making us eat her cooking. how could he!] Genma anguished.  
  
"That's not exactly what I was getting at." Soun sweatdropped 'but then again, it was cruel of him to do that.' "Since the two of them haven't argued in a while perhaps it's time to hold another wedding? His other fiancee's haven't shown up and that Ryouga boy isn't around... no one would interrupt."  
  
[That's brilliant Tendo, then we won't have to eat Akane's cooking] Genma grunted in approval.  
  
"Um, right." Soun blinked.  
  
__________  
  
Ranma couldn't help but feel a slight sense of dread come over him. He had been so happy that morning about being left alone that he knew he had just jinxed himself. He easily felt the change in the air currents due to Shampoo's bike coming towards him. Hopping off the fence he hoped to avoid her usual greeting, even though there was no close encounter with her bike Shampoo still managed to land in his arms.  
  
"Hello Shampoo..." Ranma dry toned.  
  
"Hello Airen, you seem happy today, want to take me out for a date?" Shampoo hugged Ranma tighter than he felt comfortable with, which was actually pretty easy to do.  
  
Gently placing his hands on her hips Ranma placed Shampoo at arms length. "I really don't thi..."  
  
*Splash*  
  
"Go ahead and take your pet cat out for a date!" Akane, who Ranma hadn't been paying much attention to on their way to school, was steaming mad 'First Shampoo shows up and instead of screaming for her to get off he tries to grope her. I bet he was fantasizing about her in the bath the other day. That Pervert!'  
  
Ranma slowly lowered Shampoo on to her furry legs and turned to Akane "That wasn't very nice, you know?" she drawled out.  
  
Akane just stood in surprise "Um Ranma... you know you were holding a cat..." Akane slapped her hands over her mouth as soon as she realized what she was saying 'If she doesn't know she's holding a cat she might not run off in fear.'  
  
"I noticed" Ranma's voice didn't change in tone.  
  
"B-but how d-did you..." Akane was cut off by Ranma who turned back to the cat on the ground in front of her. "I'll take you to get some hot water, alright?" Ranma once again picked up Shampoo and her clothing and headed back to the Cat Cafe.  
  
"What's going on around here?" Akane was able to eventually stammer out. She quickly caught up with Ranma on her way to the Cat Cafe.  
  
"R-Ran-chan?"  
  
Ranma and Akane stopped at the new voice.  
  
"Yo Ucchan." Ranma waved at her.  
  
"A-are you holding a cat?" She asked, looking from Ranma to the cat, then to Akane.  
  
"How observant of you." Ranma quiped.  
  
"Wait a minute aren't you afraid of cats?" Ukyo narrowed her eyes at Ranma.  
  
"I used to be, but not any more." Not bothering of expanding on the subject Ranma headed once more for the Cat Cafe.  
  
The four of them reached the Cafe and found Cologne sitting at the counter. "Hey old ghoul, Shampoo needs some hot water." Ranma called out. Cologne looked from Ranma to Shampoo over to Akane and finally at Ukyo. "Yes I know Shampoo's a cat right now. Now, can she have some hot water please... Um actually why don't you take her, here's her clothes." Ranma wisely deduced that having a naked Shampoo in her arms while in the Cat Cafe along with his other two fiancees wasn't a bright idea.  
  
"So son-in-law... finally decided to marry Shampoo, eh?" Cologne chuckled.  
  
"What are you talking about?" Ranma raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Why else would you decide to get rid of you fear of cats so suddenly?" She smiled at her.  
  
"What! I bet you were with her the whole time during your 'training trip'!" Akane completely forgot that Shampoo had came over at least twice during that time looking for him.  
  
"How could you Ranma? I'm your cute fiancee!" Ukyo's whole plan of giving Ranma some space to cool off went to the winds.  
  
"I won't allow it!" Mousse shouted at Ukyo with his fist raised in a threatening manner. "You won't take my Shampoo from me that easily!"  
  
"I don't want your bimbo, jackass!" Ukyo grabbed her huge spatula.  
  
"Ukyo?" Mousse blinked.  
  
"Got it only two tries, congratulations." came the annoyed voice of his true nemesis.  
  
"There you are!" Mousse jumped at Ranma, only to be thrown back by a chair to the face.  
  
"Are you trying to tell me what I can and can't do?" Ranma asked in a cold voice, while dropping the remains of the chair she used on Mousse.  
  
"You can die if you'd like... but you can't have Shampoo!" Mousse growled at her.  
  
"If Shampoo and I want to be together there's no one who could stop it." Ranma snorted back.  
  
"I knew you were running around behind my back with her!" Akane had all the proof she needed.  
  
"Ran-chan you and that hussy can't get married!" Ukyo cried.  
  
Ranma wasn't going to put up with it "I don't want to marry Shampoo alright! But if I did I wouldn't let any of you stop me! So back off and shut up!"  
  
"Never!" Mousse was in a blind rage 'She might have been able to surprise Ryouga with her mean streak but I won't fall into the same trap.'  
  
Ranma's aura surged within her. 'Guess it's Mousse's turn to learn.'  
  
Ranma blocked Mousse's bo attacks with her arms barely feeling anything. Mousse's bo eventually cracked under the power of his swings, so he pulled out two chinese swords next. Ranma hopped back to get some space before beckoning Mousse forward. Mousse gladly accepted the invitation and begun swinging the swords in a intricate pattern.  
  
"Not... bad... Mousse." Ranma got out while dodging the attacks, apparently Mousse had a better understanding of the situation than Ryouga originally had. Moving his hands at advanced amaguriken speed Ranma punched one sword out of Mousse's hand, before following after it's trajectory.  
  
"What do you say?" Ranma grinned at Mousse as she held the blade in her hand. Mousse pulled out another blade before pushing up his glasses on his face. "I won't loose this time." Mousse promised.  
  
"Come, let me teach you your place." Ranma let all cheer leave her visage.  
  
Cologne narrowed her eyes 'Ranma's ki has changed dramatically, I don't like the looks of this.'  
  
Ranma and Mousse began to exchange blows, Even though Mousse was a master of hidden weapons he was not a master of weapons. Thus he found himself on the defensive as Ranma poked and parried at him.  
  
"It ends Mousse." Ranma calmly stated, she then let the ground explode from the breaking point technique done with the sword. Mousse knocked away the floor tiling that came at him. As he knocked the last large tile away he felt the sharp tip of a blade against his neck.  
  
"Do you yield?" Ranma asked.  
  
Mousse looked Ranma in the eyes "I told you I won't loos... urk!"  
  
"Do you yield?" Ranma asked as Mousse started to bleed at the neck.  
  
Mousse took another long look in the eyes of Ranma before dropping his swords "I... yield."  
  
Ranma removed the blade from Mousse's neck and handing him back the sword. "See you later. I'm headed home..." Ranma called to the girls.  
  
"meow" everyone blinked at the sound.  
  
"I'm sorry Shampoo but I was telling the truth." Ranma replied.  
  
"meow" the cat started to pad over to her.  
  
"No. I'm just not ready to get married." Was Ranma's last words before leaving. Everyone else just blinked at the exchange.  
  
__________  
  
Near the outskirts of Tokyo a dark soul gazed upon it with a intense look. 'I know I felt a familiar aura in this area a month ago... there it is again. Yes I'm getting closer. And their power is getting stronger.' A bone chilling laugh echoed around the area.  
  
__________  
  
Ranma returned home male and extremely pissed off. 'How dare they attempt to control me again! I swear if one more person tries something like that again...'  
  
"Ranma." came a sharp voice from the family room.  
  
"Coming." Ranma grumbled. He found Soun and Genma sitting on the floor with serious expressions on their faces. He glanced to the side to see his mother and Kasumi also in the room. 'This isn't going to be good... and I'm not really in the mood for their crap.'  
  
Unfortunately, none of them knew the state that young Ranma was in.  
  
"We weren't expecting you back home so soon but since you're here..." Soun began.  
  
Genma spoke up, hardly missing a beat "With you and Akane getting along so well lately" everyone winced except Ranma "and your 'friends' out of the way, we decided to hold another wedding next week."  
  
"Yes, hopefully there won't be any interruptions this time around." Nodoka spoke up.  
  
"No."  
  
"Excuse me?" Nodoka asked her son.  
  
"I won't be getting married next week." Ranma continued to stare at his father.  
  
"But it's a matter of honer that you marry your fiancee!" Genma roared.  
  
"Look, I don't want to marry Ukyo." Ranma replied.  
  
"What? We mean Akane." his mother clarified.  
  
"Oh, well then, I don't want to marry that fiancee either." Ranma decided to clarify as well, emphasizing 'that fiancee'.  
  
"What do you mean that fiancee? You know Akane is your only true fiancee." Nodoka's voice was staring to firm up.  
  
"Yes son, Akane and you must get married." Soun was stoic in his response.  
  
"I'm sorry but I won't get married to anyone next week." Ranma still stared at his father.  
  
"Look Boy! I won't let you tarnish the honor of the Saotome name!" Genma finally stood.  
  
"Bull! I'm the only one who cares about honor around here!" Ranma yelled back.  
  
"Now Ranma surely you don't mind getting married to Akane?" Kasumi tried to calm him  
  
Ranma stared at Kasumi 'you too... of course, I always thought you were only looking out for Akane when you were nice to me. The whole 'she's really a nice girl, just a violent maniac' was a dead give away.' "I don't want to marry her. Just accept it Genma." Ranma voice lost all heat in it instead it was a cool tone.  
  
"Ranma! Don't you dare talk to your father like that!" Nodoka scolded him.  
  
"To hell with him! He's caused me nothing but trouble since he took me on that training voyage. And I'm not putting up with it anymore. Genma Saotome I challenge you for mastery of the Saotome school of Anything Goes martial arts!"  
  
Genma eyes went wide at the challenge "Alright boy, I'll put you back in your place."  
  
Ranma grinned back at him "Ditto."  
  
The two walked out of the house and into the back yard.  
  
Genma got into his stance while Ranma stood across from him with his eyes closed. Genma studied Ranma as he clenched his fists and grit his teeth. All of a sudden a huge black aura appeared around Ranma.  
  
Ranma let his gaze fall upon Genma as he opened his eyes. "I'll defeat you with one move."  
  
Genma scoffed at him "You think because you've strengthen you aura a little you can take me so easily. Stop deluding yourself!"  
  
Genma charged at Ranma, he knew that Ranma wasn't one for idle threats so he kept his eyes focused for any change from Ranma.  
  
Not taking any chances Genma reluctantly used a very dull version of his vacuum blade on Ranma. Knowing it wouldn't be enough to defeat his son Genma followed behind it with a ki charged punch that would bring Ranma to his knees.  
  
Ranma watched the vacuum blade approach with Genma following and didn't move an inch. 'The breaking point should handle the first attack well enough but I know Genma's punch is going to hurt. But if I really want to beat him in one move than I'm going to have to take it.'  
  
The vacuum blade slammed into Ranma harmlessly, besides from ripping his shirt. However Genma's punch knocked the air out of Ranma causing him to spit out a small bit of blood. Knowing that this was his best chance, Ranma grabbed Genma by the neck with both hands and pumped as much of his dark aura into Genma as he could.  
  
__________  
  
'There! Yes I can feel it completely, what glorious power this one has. I can't wait to beat it out of him.' The man thought to himself as he reached the forest bordering Nerima.  
  
__________  
  
Akane, Shampoo, Ukyo and Cologne all were making their way towards the dojo. The girls all wanted to figure out what the hell Ranma was talking about, while Cologne wanted to take a good look at the ki Ranma was generating.  
  
"I feel a spike of ki, hurry girls." Cologne admonished, causing the girls to break out into a run. As they reached the dojo they heard two voices talking in the back  
  
"I'll defeat you with one move."  
  
"You think because you've strengthen you aura a little you can take me so easily. Stop deluding yourself!"  
  
They recognized the voices as Ranma and Genma respectively. As they finally made it within viewing distance they all stood in shock at the scene. No more than a few feet from them, Nodoka, Kasumi, and Soun were also stunned by the sight in front of them.  
  
"Aahhh!" Genma screamed in agony at the pain coursing through his body. Ranma on the other hand had a mad gleam in his eyes as he continued to feed power into Genma. Ranma dropped Genma after what seemed like an eternity to the spectators but was really just 15 seconds.  
  
Ranma turned to Soun "I believe I have won, don't you?" Soun could only nod his head at him.  
  
"Son, that wasn't very manly of you..." Nodoka spoke in a solemn voice. "First talking back to your father, then attacking him, I think there's some things we need to discuss." Nodoka placed her hand on the Saotome blade.  
  
Ranma's head dropped at his mothers words. Nodoka was expecting him to look back at her with his usual apologetic look he took whenever she scolded him. Instead she first say his lips quiver. 'I didn't think if he would be this shaken up about all this, maybe I should soften up. No, he has to know that he must respect his father no matter what.' She was shocked however that once he looked at her it was not with tears in his eyes, but a burning fire.  
  
Ranma began to chuckle as he looked at his mother. "It isn't very manly? But it's okay to have my life controlled by a fat fool like him? A man who harps about honor only when it doesn't pertain to himself. A man who put me through enough crap to cause me to loose my sanity! A man who has destroyed so many different families honor that he doesn't even remember them all! You want me to respect that?!"  
  
"W-what?" Nodoka was shocked by the pain in Ranma's voice.  
  
"Day after day I put up with his hypocrisy, I deal with women who try to trick me or force me into marriages, I deal with people who want to leave me a bloody smear on the pavement, and I even... I even have to deal with a women who should love me unconditionally but instead seems to be itching to gut me! and who's fault is it? It's his! He engaged me to more women than I or even he knows, He made me sign that damn contract, half of the people out to cause me serious harm are because of his engagements, he was the fool who forced me to learn the neko-ken and he took me to Jusenkyo where I was cursed! That man has no honor and if you stand by him against me then you're no better!" Ranma calmed down after his outburst.  
  
"How dare you!" Nodoka pulled out the katana, even though she had no intention of ever making Ranma use it to fulfill the contract, she did use it to intimidate him. It also helped calm her down when she started to let her temper get to her.  
  
Ranma knew nothing of this, so when Nodoka unsheathed the Saotome blade, he realized she had made her decision "So you still stand by him? Fine from this point on I'm no longer your son, I'm no longer his bargaining chip, I'm no longer some punching bag for Akane, or some cash cow or fiancee or son-in-law! I'm simply Ranma! and to hell with the lot of you!" Ranma's aura reached new heights at his proclamation as he bounded away. Everyone back at the dojo shielded their eyes from the glare of his aura and by the time they looked up again he was gone.  
  
Silence reigned for a few moments before the sound of the front door being opened caused everyone to look towards the door with hope that things weren't as bad as they seemed.  
  
Nabiki walked in the house and called out "Where is everyone." Her answer came in a subdued voice "Out back Nabiki."  
  
"Um, hi everbody..." Nabiki was shocked at all the people who were assembled. "What happen to Mr. Saotome?!" Nabiki looked at his slightly burnt body as his faced changed from one expression of pain into another. "Wait where's Ranma, did someone take him and beat up Genma?" Nabiki asked. She knew something bad was going to happen when Ranma, Akane, and Ukyo failed to show up for school. She started to get impatient when no one would answer her but instead kept looking at each other "well?"  
  
"Ranma did this." Everyone looked at Soun. "We were discussing the upcoming marriage of Ranma and Akane when Ranma refused to go along. We tried to convince him to agree but he only got angry. The next thing I know Ranma was challenging Genma for mastery of the Saotome branch."  
  
Nabiki looked at Genma then back to her father "If Ranma won why did he leave?" something wasn't adding up. Again everyone started aggravating Nabiki by clamping up and looking at Nodoka. "Auntie?" Nabiki asked her before noticing that Nodoka had her katana out. 'Oh boy, things are going to get complicated.'  
  
A groan broke the through the silence followed by Genma waking up "Oh, the pain..."  
  
__________  
  
Ranma's pursuer sat in the forest of Nerima in a meditative stance 'He's coming this way I can feel it, I wonder if he knows I'm here. If not than the dark power he possesses is being drawn to me.'  
  
__________  
  
Not to far away in another district of Tokyo an aged Chinese man was also on a rendezvous course with the figure in the forest. 'I know where he is, but why does he keep appearing in and out of the city? It's almost like he's in two places at once. I wonder why he's teleporting into the city, powering up his aura, then teleport back to the forest to wait.'  
  
__________  
  
"Real smart Ranma. Just blow up at everybody and leave without even thinking things through. Ingenious, now you have no clothes, no money, no one you can contact." Ranma bitterly thought to himself. "Still I guess I was going to have to leave eventually..." He froze in place as he felt an incredible force near him.  
  
"My, my, you're only a boy." A deep voice that seemed to come from everywhere spoke up.  
  
"Who's there?" Ranma demanded.  
  
"What is your name boy?" The figure came into view.  
  
"What's yours?" Ranma shot back at the... creature before him. He looked human for the most part. Wearing a simple gray gi with the sleeves ripped off. His skin was unnaturally dark, like he wasn't born with it... but instead he had turned dark. He wore a pair of dark brown hand guards and a large bead necklace of the same color. His hair was a blood red color and flew straight up into the air with a section near the back in a ponytail also defying gravity, his eyes were also red and had no pupils. And his teeth... Ranma had come across a few people who one might say had fangs, but a mouth full of them? Yes Ranma was sure this wasn't a normal man.  
  
"You may call me... Akuma" The figure grinned at him, showing his canines.  
  
"Akuma? That can't be your real name..." Ranma raised an eyebrow.  
  
"No, that was not the name I was given, but it will do. Now I ask you again what is your name?"  
  
"Ranma. Ranma is my name. why do you ask." 'as if I couldn't guess' Ranma thought.  
  
"I sense the dark energy within you. It calls to me. Come let me feel your power." Akuma bent down and spread his legs, tucking his right arm at his side he brought his left arm down bent at the elbow, forearm pointing at Ranma while standing on the front of his feet. While in that position Akuma let his some of his power flow out of him through his upper body. After the red energy dissipated he entered into what was a basic karate stance, his body sideways with his front arm hanging downward until the elbow which was bent bringing his forearm across his waist. The arm away from Ranma was crossed at his chest, the palms of both hands were opened. His legs were shoulder length apart as he bounced up and down on them.  
  
Ranma took a deep breath 'The power coming from him is on par with Saffron... perhaps even stronger. It's definitely darker than Saffrons, hell it's darker than mine. But if he thinks he can scare me he has another thing coming.' Ranma let his black aura surround him. "Alright 'Akuma' I guess you didn't know, but I've already moved up to defeating a god! You're over stepping your bounds!"  
  
"Enough talk!" Akuma roared, and the fight was started.  
  
__________  
  
Gen paused in his walk towards Akuma when he felt a second power appear right next to the one he was heading for. 'Is that why I thought he was at two places at once? Was there actually another person giving off that kind of power? Akuma must have sensed it at came here to fight him.' Deciding that he wanted to have a look at whatever was strong enough to get Akuma's attention Gen picked up the pace.  
  
__________  
  
Ranma decided to take the initiative and not let Akuma attack with his massive power. 'Hopefully I can keep him on the defensive...' Ranma threw almost Amaguriken speed punches at him each one being blocked by Akuma. 'It seems he's not fast enough to dodge them.' Ranma guessed as he continued to throw punch after punch at his opponent. Ranma started noticing a pattern in his blocking style 'I think I've came by this style before.' Waiting for the right moment to strike, Ranma threw a powerful blow at Akuma's exposed sternum. Ranma boggled as Akuma lifted one leg and stood on the toes of his other and bringing one hand up to his face level almost like a block and lowering the other, and seemed to disappear from sight and senses for a second before appearing right behind him. 'Damn he's fast... no that couldn't be speed... and if it wasn't speed then he must have' Ranma was literally knocked out of his contemplation by a jab to his ribs from behind. As he body jerked to the side from the blow, Ranma used the momentum to turn to Akuma with a spinning high kick followed by sweep. Ducking the high kick Akuma stomped on Ranma's leg when he attempted the sweep.  
  
Ranma couldn't help but cry out in pain as he leg was almost broken. Ranma desperately shot a Mouka Takabisha at Akuma from his position on the ground. Akuma was surprised by the attack 'I didn't feel him charge his dark energy for that attack I'll have to watch out for that.' Rolling backwards onto his feet Ranma tested his leg. 'Not to bad, it'll be fine in a few seconds.' Akuma noticed Ranma inspecting his leg 'It should be broken. It seems his body is tougher than it looks, but even if it's not broken it's still in bad shape.'  
  
Capitalizing on Ranma's injury Akuma took to the air with a jump kick. Ranma was able to brace himself while blocking the kick somewhat with his good leg, but still felt the strain on his injured one. Akuma didn't let the block deter him though as he flowed into a low kick catching Ranma's bad leg then going for his hurricane kick also known as the Tatsumaki Zankukyaku.  
  
Ranma's head jerked back and forth as he felt 4 kicks to his head after Akuma clipped his foot. Falling onto his stomach after the final kick, Ranma rolled forward hoping to catch Akuma off guard. Luckily Akuma was about to rush at him and was momentarily frozen in place when Ranma came towards him instead. Deciding not to hold back Ranma unleashed the Amaguriken fueled with his dark energy.  
  
Akuma grunted in pain while laying on the ground. After getting up he spied Ranma testing his leg again, the boy seemed to be pleased with his results, meaning his leg was probably alright now. Not wanting to allow the boy to move in again Akuma tried a classic set up. He shot a Gou Hadoken, his own version of a ki attack where his cups his hands together at his waist before throwing them forward, firing a purplish fireball with the imprint of the hands in it. Ranma predictably jumped over the attack hoping to land his own jump kick only to meet the gou shoryuken, a uppercut where Akuma launches himself into the air. When performed on an opponent close to the ground it can connect up to three times. Ranma tried to avoid it in mid-air and ended up only receiving one blow from the move.  
  
Ranma landed on his feet before Akuma reached the ground and jumped back at him for a mid-air battle. Akuma realizing Ranma was proficient at mid-air battle, apparent from his ability to dodge some of his rising uppercut and able to still land on his feet, decided to send Ranma back to the ground with a zanku hadoken, his ki fireball shot downwards from the air. Ranma's eyes widened when he saw the attack come at him. Crossing his arms over his chest he fueled them with his dark ki. Landing from taking the ki blast Ranma began jumping form tree to tree. Akuma landed on the ground trying to keep track of him. After losing Ranma amongst the trees Akuma tried to rely on his hearing to warn him of Ranma's approach. 'He thinks I won't be able to block his attack because I don't see him coming. Not a bad tactic to use against weaklings but utterly pointless against me.' Hearing Ranma approach him from behind Akuma decided to play with him.Letting him come almost close enough to the point were it would be impossible to dodge in time, Akuma spun around a held out a hand to block the jump kick. He didn't even have time to curse his stupidity as he was cuaght with Ranma's shooting star kick.  
  
Akuma found himself once again laying on his back. A position this boy was starting to make Akuma hate. Deciding he had played around enough Akuma stood up and went into his teleport again. Ranma paused at the move before turning around to catch Akuma attacking him from behind, only to have Akuma appear behind him anyway, Akuma had really been teleporting right in front of Ranma orginally. 'He... he... teleported!' Ranma dropped to the floor like he did against Ryouga hoping to dodge whatever attack Akuma used. He lucked out when he saw an enormous version of Akuma's ki fireball flew by with Akuma calling out "Messatsu Gou Hadou!"  
  
Ranma pushed up with his arms off the floor, laying a kick to Akuma's chin with his foot. Getting back to his feet Ranma turned to Akuma and shot his new ki attack the mouko takabisha combined with his new dark energy at point blank range with his opponents face. Idly he reminded himself to name that attack something cool after the fight.  
  
Ranma stared at his opponent waiting to see if he was down for the count. Ranma almost screamed in frustration as Akuma got back to his feet. Getting back into a defensive stance Ranma tracked Akuma as he jumped into the air. Planning on waiting to see if Akuma would fire off another one of those ki attacks Ranma was almost caught off guard when Akuma extended his foot pointing it downward and actually flew down at an incredible speed. 'I'm not even that good in the air!' Not one to be out done by air performances though Ranma went into a front flip straight up, letting Akuma's foot impact the groud under him he landed on top of Akuma. With Akuma on the ground Ranma once again laid the katchu tenshin amaguriken into him. Akuma pushed Ranma off of him with only his aura.  
  
"This has gone on long enough!" He bellowed to Ranma.  
  
"I guess you know your place now." Ranma smirked, internally though he was sweating bullets, 'his aura is still going strong... I didn't want to have to use them but...'  
  
"Kijin Raishu Dan!" Ranma cries out shooting a vacuum blade at Akuma. Ranma grit his teeth as he watches Akuma teleport, bringing his arms back for a second one Ranma waits for Akuma to reappear. Sensing him a few steps behind him, Ranma begins to fire another one but notices Akuma get in his teleportation stance again. Stopping himself from throwing out another one he glances around since Akuma's ki seems to be everywhere instead of nowhere like when he usually teleports. 'He's trying to confuse me that's why he left all these afterimages coming towards me while he aura fills up the area...' Ranma can't help but feel something off about his guess. 'What if that's the trick! He isn't leaving behind afterimages to confuse me but his aura surrounding the area is to take my attention away from them!..'  
  
"Damn!" Ranma turned back to the image of Akuma floating towards him in his teleportation stance right before it reached him. For a moment everything went black. The next thing Ranma knew he was in a world of pain like he never felt before in his life. He was assaulted by images of all the things he did in his life that caused others pain. From leaving behind Ucchan all the way to turning his back on his so called family and friends.  
  
Ranma tried to fight it with all his might using his anger to counteract the images. 'All my sins are in part due to my father, I didn't want to hurt them, But it needed to be done. I DIDN'T WANT TO HURT ANYONE!' As Ranma laid on the ground, feeling his body figuratively rip itself apart from the insides, he watched in a detached sort of way Akuma turning his back on him as some sign appeared on his back. Ranma couldn't make it out from his position on the ground.  
  
Akuma turned away from Ranma as the boy lay on the ground with blood pooling out of his mouth and cuts all around his body. "You made me use my Shungokusatsu. Die with the knowledge that you gave me a true challenge Ranma."  
  
With those parting words Akuma vanished.  
  
If Akuma stayed a little longer he would have been witness to an amazing sight.  
  
__________  
  
Gen ran as fast as he could as he felt the dark energy coming from his target reach an amazing height. However once he made it the only thing let was a battered young man laying in a pool of blood. Before Gen could get a good look at him he was taken aback by the new sight.  
  
Ranma's body was engulfed in a what seemed like living black flames, the power was so strong that he was actually floating in the air for a brief moment. His body was still fighting the raging demon attack even as Ranma lost consciousness.  
  
Gen waited for Ranma's body to stop burning the forest before approaching him. 'Even with his body fighting the raging demon I don't know if this boy will survive.' Gen used every pressure point he knew to sustain him while he carried him to the nearest hospital in the district nearby... Nerima.  
  
__________  
  
Far across the globe a women with mystical abilities felt the shift of power in the earth. "I think a trip to Japan is in order..." Rose commented to herself.  
  
To Be Continued  
  
Next Time: Partners- Ranma is offered a chance to train with the assassin Gen, but will he accept and why is Gen offering to teach him. And what this about a tournament? It's two on two? That's Ranma's partner!?  
  
quail12001@yahoo.com 


	3. Partners

The Dark Side of the Art By: Q A Ranma 1/2 - Street Fighter - King of Fighters crossover Disclaimer: None of the character within this story belong to me, they belong to Rumiko Takahashi, Capcom, and SNK respectively.  
  
Partners  
  
'You left your best friend all alone in the middle of the road and stole from her.'  
  
'I didn't know...'  
  
'You left a lonely boy alone without a friend.'  
  
'I didn't know...'  
  
'You caused the same boy to become cursed'  
  
'I didn't know...'  
  
'You stole a warriors prize and honor just to feed your belly'  
  
'I didn't know...'  
  
'But you do now and you haven't done anything about it.'  
  
'I... I... what can I do...'  
  
'Die'  
  
'What?'  
  
'Die. Let all those who have been dishonored by you regain it. And those who have dedicated their lives to you move on. For once do the right thing. Not just for them but for your own honor.'  
  
'Yes...'  
  
_________  
  
"I don't think he's going to make it..."  
  
Rose looked at the old Chinese man "I'm inclined to agree at this moment." She turned away from Gen focusing back on the door leading to the comatose young man.  
  
"It's been three weeks since I brought him here. His body gets closer and closer to giving up with each day... it's amazing that he was able to last this long, but I fear the time has come." Gen spoke as he continued to gaze at the men and women walking through the white halls.  
  
"I hate to say this, but it's possibly for the best. I could feel the dark energy his was putting out all the way from my home in Italy. I'm surprised Bison isn't here." Rose thanked whatever Gods had seen to that.  
  
Gen snorted. "Bison isn't stupid enough to face Akuma. Not yet at least. As for the boy... his power is dark, there's no denying it. However, it's not quite evil."  
  
"How can he have such a dark power and not be evil?" questioned the purpled haired women.  
  
"I believe he's angry and hurt, but not evil... there's no way he could fight the raging demon otherwise..." Gen stared intensely at the door to Ranma's room.  
  
"Perhaps I should take a look?" Rose cocked an eyebrow at Gen.  
  
"What do you mean?" Gen slowly turned back to her, before his face took on a understanding look "Yes, perhaps you should..."  
  
__________  
  
'Right, if I die than I can't hurt anyone anymore. And everyone... everyone can be happy. Mom can keep believing in our... her family honor. Akane, Nabiki, and Kasumi won't be forced to marry someone against their will. Shampoo can return to China and her family without any problems. Ukyo can marry anyone she wants. Ryouga, Mousse, and Kuno can... well screw them really. Yes everone would be happy if I just died... If I just gave up. But can I? Can I really give up. I finally took control of my life, will I give it up for them? No, but I'm doing this for myself... to make amends with myself...'  
  
'Do you truly believe that?'  
  
'Who's there?!'  
  
'No one important. So answer me, do you really want to die?'  
  
'It'll solve a lot of problems...'  
  
'I didn't ask you that. I asked you did you want to die.'  
  
'...'  
  
'You don't do you?'  
  
'It's doesn't matter what I want. I know that now... Everything I've done to my friends, how can I do what I want when it makes them suffer?'  
  
'Do you really think it's that bad?'  
  
'You don't understand'  
  
'Why don't you make me understand.'  
  
'W-what?'  
  
'Explain it to me.'  
  
'Now?'  
  
'If not now you won't get another chance.'  
  
'What are you talking about.'  
  
'You're dieing. Soon, more than likely today actually, you will pass away.'  
  
'But I haven't made my decision yet!'  
  
'Akuma's raging demon attack doesn't care. It will kill you today... Unless you beat it. Will you allow Akuma to decide if you live or die?  
  
'AKUMA! He... He beat me. And now he's trying to force me to die?'  
  
'You must decide now, will you control your life like you claim or will you let him decide for you? Think about it...'  
  
'...Hello? Did you leave?... I guess she did. Even if I choose to die for my sins... I will do so on my own terms! And I won't die until I've paid back that bastard Akuma!'  
  
__________  
  
Gen jumped ever so lightly when Rose snapped back to attention. "I've done all I can..." She whispered. Gen relaxed his expression as he felt the stirring of the dark power coming from behind the door slowly strengthen. Glancing at the mysterious women across from him he asked. "What do you think of him?"  
  
"I think he may be saved yet. You were right, he hasn't given in to the evil aspect of the power." After saying she and Gen became quiet as nurses and doctors rushed into the room they had been watching off and on for the past three weeks.  
  
After ten or so minutes everyone slowly pooled out of the room. Many were sporting confused expressions wondering why the equipment started to go crazy all of a sudden.  
  
"Excuse me." Gen gained the attention of one of the nurses. "Can you tell me what's going on?"  
  
The young nurse blinked at the old man and took a step back at the sight of his pure white eyes. "N-nothing, the machines were just acting up a bit. Your... grandson will be fine."  
  
"I see." was Gen's only comment. Letting the nurse scurry to wherever she was needed he returned to his seat. Almost as soon as he relaxed in his chair, Rose stood. "Something wrong?" Gen inquired.  
  
"No. I just want to have another look at him." Rose coolly replied as she entered the room closing the door behind her. Standing over the young man, who she was sure was going to cause her trouble in the future, Rose brushed a few of the bangs away from his face. She watched as the young man slowly opened his eyes, she was slightly surprised that his eyes were a grey-blue hue instead of the usual brown. She leaned down faintly when she noticed him opening his mouth to speak.  
  
"A-an angel."  
  
__________  
  
Ranma fought the last vestiges of the raging demon as it continued to attack him with painful reminders of his less than honorable life. Not sure if he had survived the final onslaught he found himself looking at the most beautiful face he had ever seen... he had never seen a female like her before and couldn't help but think that such a women couldn't be anything less than a true goddess. After all he had fought a god and a demon, maybe he couldn't beat the raging demon attack and had died, which would make her an... it would make her... "A-an angel."  
  
"E-excuse me?" Rose questioned as she straightened back up. The young man blinked at her before gradually letting his eyes take in the rest of her body. His eyes widened as he finally finished his appraisal.  
  
Ranma gulped "Wait... You're not an angel are you?"  
  
"Excuse me?" Rose's voice wasn't nearly as shaken as it was the first time. In fact it sounded a bit frosty.  
  
Not to be deterred, and still pretty out of sorts, Ranma continued. "You can't be an angel... you're a, oh no, you aren't a demon... er, demoness are you?" Ranma began to cast nervous glances around the room.  
  
Rose's tone reached arctic temperatures "Excuse me? How did you ever come to that conclusion"  
  
"I mean angels are supposed to be beautiful right?" Ranma asked while looking contemplative.  
  
"I believe so... are you saying that I'm not beautiful?" Rose clutched the scarf she wore.  
  
"Well no... It's just..." Ranma looked her up and down again, well as best he could from his position on the bed.  
  
"Just what?" She demanded. 'I sure hope he knows that he's walking on extremely thin ice right now.'  
  
"Well angels are supposed to be beautiful and all, but I don't think they're supposed to be all that sexy... I mean angels are supposed to be completely pure, or innocent, or something. A demoness, on the other hand, is suppose to be extremely beautiful and seductive right?" Ranma finally started to detect something wrong. 'Wait a minute! I can feel pain... There's wires hooked up to me... A machine on the other side of the bed... And I'm wearing a hospital gown... Ah damn.' Ranma looked at Rose "I'm not died am I?"  
  
"No... not yet..." Rose retorted while trying to break down what this _boy_ had said. 'First of all he did say I was beautiful... But he called me a demon... But he said I was seductive... But that I wasn't pure...'  
  
Ranma tried to gently remove all the different wires attached to him before sneaking for the door and getting as far away from women who he called a demon. Not prepared for his lack of strength he fell onto a nearby table.  
  
*Splash*  
  
And knocked over the pitcher of water someone left on it.  
  
"THE HELL?!"  
  
Ranma not wanting to stick around for whatever was about to happen, made a scrambled for the door.  
  
*Wham*  
  
Which was abruptly haltered, as the door impacted with his face as he was reaching for it.  
  
"What's going on?" Gen demanded beside the door, never noticing the thump that came from behind it.  
  
"He was... then the table... a girl... the door..." Rose for once in her life was completely and utterly mystified.  
  
"What? You're not making any sense." Gen placed his arms on Rose's shoulders. He tried to back away when she hauled him up by his robe. 'She's a strong one...'  
  
"The boy fell on the table and then he was a girl!" She howled in Gen's face.  
  
"Oh... Um, you still aren't making much sense." Gen blinked 'I didn't just say that did I?' His silent question was answered when Rose growled at him.  
  
"Ow... that hurt." came a distinctive female voice, causing Gen and Rose to both peer in her direction.  
  
"Who the hell are you?" Came the reply in stereo.  
  
"I'm Ranma... what the hell are you two doing in my hospital room!" 'they sure as hell don't look like any doctors or nurses I've ever seen.' Ranma shot back.  
  
"Please young lady..." Gen began.  
  
"Who the hell are you calling a young lady!" Ranma nearly screamed.  
  
"I'm sorry... I take it you don't like being referred to as a women?" Gen queried in a calm voice.  
  
"Damn straight. I'm a guy. This body is thanks to a stupid Chinese curse." The red-head crossed her arms under her chest.  
  
"Please. Do you really expect for us to be..." Rose was interrupted by Gen.  
  
"Jusenkyo?" Gen began to stroke his beard. "I've heard the rumors. I never believed them to be true... tell me since you were a boy before, how does this... curse work?"  
  
Ranma blinked "Um cold water activates it and hot water returns me back to normal..."  
  
"Interesting." Gen nodded to himself. "However it doesn't answer your question or have much to do with the reason why I'm... or rather, why we are here." Gen looked to Rose.  
  
Catching his signal Rose continued. "Sorry, I've never been one for curses or Chinese legends. But Gen, the gentleman beside me here, and I have come because of the power you now channel." Rose bore into Ranma's eyes.  
  
"Your voice... it sounds familiar...you were the one who talked to me in my dream." Ranma narrowed her eyes.  
  
"It wasn't exactly a dream, but yes that was me." Rose presented her a small smile.  
  
"I guess I can hear you guys out since you helped me and all... but can I get out of here first?" Ranma gazed around the white room wearily, he never much trusted big hospitals. And if the view form the window was any indication they were in a pretty nice sized hospital.  
  
"I'll go get a nurse." Gen replied before leaving.  
  
Ranma tried to look everywhere but at the women across from her. 'Man, did I ever put my mouth in it. Calling her a demon. I can feel an extraordinary power coming from her... not to mention a strong aura from the old men as well.'  
  
Rose's face was unreadable even though she was almost giggling at the countenance the young woman, no man had as he/she looked around the room while trying not to let the redness in his cheeks noticeable. "Ranma..."  
  
"Yes." Ranma's head snapped to attention as he answered her a little to forcefully. 'Why am I so nervous? So she's kind of pretty... Okay she's beautiful...' he flinched when he remembered what else he said she was 'seductive, what was I thinking!'  
  
"Allow me to properly introduce myself, My name is Rose and I'm a psychic. I felt the power you gave off in your skirmish with Akuma three weeks ago and hastily made my way to Japan to gain knowledge of you." Rose began to walk towards Ranma.  
  
Ranma gulped again as she watched the way Rose walked to her. 'Now that's a graceful stride...' "Um, Nice to meet you Rose." Ranma shook Rose's hand. Almost immediately afterwards Ranma's eyes bulged "Three weeks ago!"  
  
It was Rose's turn to flinch. "Yes, you've been here for three weeks. I arrived here about a week ago myself. Gen though, has been here since you arrived. In fact he brought you here shortly after your fight."  
  
As if summoned Gen entered the room. Trailing behind him was a young nurse who blinked at the scene. There was a knocked over table, a red-headed girl in a hospital gown, and no sign of the original patient. "Um, where is the young man who was in here earlier?"  
  
Ranma smacked her head, as Gen and Rose smiled weakly at the nurse. Hanging his head Gen exited again "I'll be back in a moment, I'm going to get some water." he pointedly looked at Ranma who nodded in return.  
  
"He'll be in here in a minute. Just hold on." Rose told the nurse in a soft voice that somehow was still able to carry a bit of authority in it.  
  
"A-alright." Ranma felt a slight twinge of pity for the stuttering nurse. True to his word, Gen entered the room with a small white and yellow cup of warm water in only moments.  
  
Ranma took the cup, and not really worried about what the nurse might think, poured the water over her head and regained his manhood. After shaking his head to remove some of the water, he looked back at the slightly shocked face of Rose, the studious stare of Gen, and the nurse with the glazed over look on her. "Um, miss... hello ma'am... excuse me."  
  
"Y-yes. Oh you're back, I wonder where the young lady went." the nurse replied before taking his chart and walking out of the room towards the front desk on their floor. Ranma, Gen, and Rose all looked at each other before Ranma shrugged "She actually took that pretty well..."  
  
__________  
  
A somewhat disheveled Ranma limped behind Rose and Gen towards Rose's hotel room. Whistling at the sight of the 7 story tall hotel, Ranma climbed the steps after Rose and Gen. He grinned sheepishly at the people staring at his battered Chinese outfit. He let out a sigh as the three of them eventually entered the elevator.  
  
Ranma took a good look at his two companions once the elevator doors closed. First was the Chinese man named Gen, he was giving off a tightly controlled aura, Ranma couldn't help but feel something off about... It was slightly different from a battle aura. His hands seemed to be stronger than the usual martial artists hands. His style must have had a lot of finger based moves in it, probably pressure points or something. He was old, that was for sure, not as old as the old ghoul or pervert, maybe in his 70's. The short hair on his head as well as his mustache and extremely long beard, that came to the middle of his chest, had grayed so much that it was pretty much white. The only sign of his original hair color was his black eyebrows. He had to admit the light purple Chinese robe did suit him fairly well, even with the red shoes and sash. The only thing that really stood out was the small fact that the man had no pupils. His eyes were just white... and the old man wasn't blind or anything, at least Ranma didn't think he was blind.  
  
Then there was Rose... scary, sexy, tall, sexy, mysterious, beautiful, and sexy Rose. The purple haired women was wearing an exceptionally revealing red dress. Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately... Ranma wasn't sure which, She also wore a dark purple body suit, that matched her hair, underneath her dress. A long yellow scarf was wrapped around her arms coming across her collar and back. It matched the yellow buttons on her red dress as well as the yellow buckle on her dark purple belt. Finishing off her outfit was a pair of red high heels. The most eye catching thing about Rose was, well everything about her caught his eyes, but her hair was definitely interesting. It flowed behind her as she walked no matter how weak the breeze was, except a thick strand that somehow stayed pointing forward.  
  
'Damn she's sexy...wait isn't she psychic? does that mean she can read my mind... please oh please don't let her be able to read my mind... I need to think about something else! yeah that'll keep me from thinking about how sexy she is with her tight purple body suit and red dress that's slit straight up the front... I'm screwed.' Ranma snuck a glance at Rose who locked eyes with him. 'So screwed...'  
  
Ranma stood rooted in place by Rose's stare until the elevator chimed and the door opened. Ranma almost slumped to the floor when Rose turned away from him and headed down the hall. Ranma groaned when he caught Gen chuckling to himself.  
  
"Please have a seat." Rose pleasantly called to Ranma once he made it to the room.  
  
Ranma took a nice look around the hotel room as Rose went to retrieve something for them to drink. He was impressed with the room. It wasn't the one room with a bed and tv that he was familiar with from staying in one whenever Genma suspiciously came up with a good amount of cash. No, the room he was in was more like a living room of some type, the two doors to his right must be the bedroom and bathroom. Ranma sharply turned away from both doors, he really didn't want to think about what could be done in one room and what usually happens to him in the other. Coming back to his earlier idea Ranma banished all thoughts of the attractive women he was in the hotel with by letting his anger and sorrow fill him as he thought back to his 'dream'.  
  
Undetected by Ranma, Rose almost tripped over herself at the exact same moment. Rose was miffed at how easily Ranma disregarded her. Placing the three cups of lemonade on the table that sat between the single chair, being occupied by the pig-tailed youth, on one side and the small couch that Rose and Gen both sat on even though they were at the two ends. Just to test his resolve, and to reaffirm her own sexual appeal even though not even she would admit that, Rose luridly crossed her legs. Her left eye twitched as Ranma totally ignored the action.  
  
Ranma concentration was solely on what it was that he truly desired. Was his honor really that important now that he thought about it. No... Yes... he didn't know and had no one to answer that question for him. Then again regardless of his own honor what about the honor of his friends... actually most of them were taken care of now that he was no longer a Saotome. Shampoo was really the only person he had to concern himself with. Perhaps that was the solution to all his questions. He would challenge the old ghoul to a fight to the death, he would make the speculation that if he won Shampoo could return to China with her honor completely intact, without needing to marry him. If he lost however... well there really wasn't any point worrying about that as the answer was rather obvious. Hmm, the thought of fighting a death match with Cologne was an exciting idea if he wasn't as hurt as he was.  
  
"*Ahem* Ranma, I would like to introduce myself. As Rose stated earlier I am Gen..." Gen paused a moment. "I believe we all wish to keep our last names unknown?"  
  
"I've never had a last name as far as I know." Was Rose's reply.  
  
Gen and Ranma shared a glance at the tone of Rose's voice. "Well I really don't care if you know what my last name used to be..." Ranma voiced before Rose could pick up on the looks he and Gen had. "It's Saotome."  
  
"*Spfff* Saotome?!" Gen for once showed true shock on his face.  
  
"Yeah..." deadpanned a wet female Ranma. "I hope you're going to either try to beat me up for something my father did or leave because of my association with Happosai... cause' if you say your granddaughter is my fiancee..." Ranma let the words trail off.  
  
Gen began to laugh "Oh this is rich... no wonder you survived the raging demon. You study the same style used by 'the greatest evil in Japan'."  
  
Rose gasped and stood tightly clutching her scarf. "What?!"  
  
Gen blinked and let his laugh die off. "I'm sorry Rose, Happosai isn't really that evil... perverted and selfish, but not evil."  
  
"So says you." grumbled the redhead.  
  
"Excuse me?" Rose calmed considerably.  
  
"Happosai and his two students Genma Saotome if I remember and a Tenma, Si..." Gen began to stroke his beard again.  
  
"Tendo, Soun Tendo." Ranma supplied.  
  
"Right, Soun Tendo and Genma Saotome were his students. Anyway the three of them traveled most of Asia about ten years ago. During their travels they stole from restaurants as well as from lingerie stores. They also stole female undergarments from the females themselves, not to mention peeking at them at any place public. However, even with his perversions he can not simply be wrote off as a old pervert. With his 300 years of experience he has devised one of the most complex styles known to man. Many simply scoff at the school due to the antics of it's founder and because it is assumed to be just a combination of moves already developed by other styles rolled into one. Those people however don't know the true secret behind the style of Anything Goes martial arts." Gen's description grew more and more somber as he went along.  
  
"Anything Goes martial arts?" Rose blinked at the unusual name, especially if it was as powerful as Gen was making it out to be.  
  
"Yes, the basic principle is that one will do whatever is necessary to win. As simple as the schools creed is, it is that same simple ness that makes it so powerful. A fighter will do just about anything to win, taking any advantage he can, whether or not it's a weapon, technique, or enhancement of some other kind. But the real reason to fear it is because it's practictioners if truly motivated will fight and train with everything they have until it kills them. At least that stands true for Happosai. I've only seen him truly fight once... and that was more than enough to gain my respect."  
  
Ranma was enthralled with Gen's narrative. It struck a chord deep inside Ranma's heart and filled him with anticapation... he had found what he truly desired.  
  
Rose on the other hand was nowhere near as inspired as Ranma. In fact the way Gen was speaking and the look of pure unadulterated anticipation etched across Ranma's features shook her to her core. Originally she thought that the young man in front of her would be like Akuma, after her initial encounter with him she figured he be more like Ryu, a fighter who wished to become as strong as he could. But now... now she saw the true Ranma. And she hated to admit it but it scared her. He wanted to walk the thin line between life and death with every waking breath... "My God..."  
  
Rose's whisper laced with dread broke Gen from his musings. Looking towards the distraught psychic Gen followed her gaze until his eyes fell upon the teenager.  
  
Ranma sat staring at his trembling hands, he was confused. Actually he was excited, determined, and... frightened, which left him confused.  
  
"Ranma, I will be blunt, I want to make you even stronger than you are now." Gen stated with sincerity. "However... I have my reasons. In return for making you stronger I wish for you to allow me to engage Akuma when he returns for you. Whomever between me and him remain shall meet you in mortal combat. What do you say?"  
  
As Ranma raised his head to peer at Gen, Rose covered her mouth. "Very well, but should some other opponent strong enough arrive... then all bets are off." Ranma's eyes almost blazed with intensity as he gave Gen a feral grin.  
  
"I would like you to accompany me to my home in China. We will travel there by boat once we walk to the coast. I take it you don't speak the language since you picked up your curse." Gen proposed.  
  
"China? Alright... but you're right, I don't speak the language."  
  
"I'll teach on the way as well as train you..." Gen paused an took a breath "Back in China you will have to be re-enrolled in school."  
  
Ranma bite back an angry retort 'he's not forcing me to go to school or China, he's offering me a choice...' "If you insist."  
  
"Well let's not waste any more time. Rose, is there any thing else you wanted to say?" Gen turned to her.  
  
"What?" Rose shook her head to clear it. 'These two in a partnership... an assassin and a fighter with the evil intent... I really didn't see this coming.' "Ranma, please be careful with this power, do not let it control you... And well, try not to get yourself killed. I would hate for my efforts to have been in vain. I don't believe you would like a demoness mad at you." She let a ghost of a smile cross her face.  
  
"R-right... don't die, got it." Ranma nervously rubbed the back of his head while flushed in the face.  
  
"*Ahem* Then if you would excuse us." Gen rose to leave sketching a bow to her.  
  
Rose bowed back then turned to Ranma "Until we meet again young Ranma." and gave him a card.  
  
Ranma looked the card over "It's a tarot card, right?"  
  
"It's a little more than that..." And Rose ushered him out of the room.  
  
__________  
  
Rose sat at the table after her two guest had taking their leave. Taking a deep breath she began to lay three cards across the middle of the table before placing one above and one below the middle card. Removing a final card from her deck she could only stare at it in shock...  
  
"He'll be the..."  
  
__________  
  
Ranma and Gen walked, and trudged, the street of Nerima making their way to Furankin High. "Do we really have to go get my records." Ranma grumbled as he tried to keep pace with the surprisingly, well maybe not, fast old man.  
  
"Yes, I refuse to be killed or shown up by an uneducated child such as you. If you're going to be the one to kill me or Akuma in battle then you should be well educated, otherwise my defeat will be more of a humiliation then a honorable battle."  
  
"Ooooookay..." Ranma was a bit put off by how casually Gen spoke of his death. However, he did kind of understand what Gen was saying about being beaten by a fool, he wondered how he would feel if an idiot beat him in a fight...  
  
"Vile Sorcerer!"  
  
Ranma almost slammed his head into the pavement from the facefault. 'I guess I asked for that...' Ranma looked up to see that he had reached Furankin High without even paying attention. He was confused as to why Kuno was standing in the courtyard in the middle of class, along with most of the students. He hadn't noticed the students who saw him approaching and rushed to inform everyone else.  
  
"At last you have come to battle me in our final confrontation." Kuno unsheathed an actual katana. "I shall return honor to the Saotome's and Tendo's with my blade. You might have escaped from the pig-tailed girl's family blade but mine shall deliver you to your fate."  
  
"Tatewaki Kuno. I've never truly hated you... but today you have crossed a line. You speak to me of the Saotome honor and the Tendo honor, as well as dictate to me my fate? My fate is mine to choose now and forever and any man or woman who dares otherwise will be shown the truth... painfully if need be. Today Kuno, is your day to be shown the truth." Ranma's voice once again held a raging inferno of anger beneath a glacier of cool assurance.  
  
Kuno and Ranma continued to gaze at one another as Gen studied Ranma's change. 'He speaks slightly different... I think he associates his speech pattern with his mentality. He speaks in a unseemly manner when he's relaxed, but once he becomes truly incensed he speaks with poise and grace. I believe his relaxed state is nothing more than an act so well played he doesn't realize it himself.'  
  
"Taste the wrath of heaven!" Kuno ran with more speed than Ranma had ever remembered before. Faking a thrust by drawing back his arms, Kuno launched himself into the air. With his body still in pain Ranma had skipped back to avoid the thrust only to trip when he watched Kuno take to the air. Ranma cocked his head less than an inch as the sword imbedded itself halfway into the ground beside Ranma's face.  
  
Rolling away and taking his time standing, Ranma started to reach for the nick Kuno's sword had left across his cheek. If not for the blood it probably wouldn't even be noticeable. Pausing only inches away from the wound Ranma dropped his hand by his side. "I'm going to pay you back two fold." Ranma promised before grinning once again.  
  
"Isn't it usually ten fold?" One of Nabiki's associates asked her.  
  
"or a hundred?" Added the other, looking towards the older girl.  
  
"Yeah..." Nabiki wasn't paying much attention to her underlings, she had other things to mull over 'Ranma looked really injured when he walked through the gates... And now Kuno was even able to scratch him. What happen to you while you were gone... and more importantly what will you do now?'  
  
Not far from her, Akane and Ukyo stood watching the fight. One not sure what to feel and the other gripping her spatula for dear life.  
  
"Is he going to hurt Kuno like he tried to do to his dad and Ryouga?" Akane voiced.  
  
"Who cares what he does to Kuno. I just hope Ranma doesn't hurt himself any further." Ukyo almost turned her spatula into a shovel.  
  
Ranma rushed at Kuno as the other boy followed his lead. The two sped pass each other at blinding speed. For a bried moment when the two were side by side, some of the gathered students swore they saw flashes of black flames. Coming to a halt with the same distance between them as they had originally held, The two slowly rotated to view one another. The two held that pose for several seconds until Ranma broke the silence.  
  
"Halfway there."  
  
Kuno flinched as he sword broke in half in his hands and a cut appeared on his right cheek. "You...You...You DARE mar my beautiful features?!"  
  
"It would seem that I'm daring lots of people lately." Ranma announced. "But I'm not done with you yet Kuno."  
  
As Ranma charged Kuno again, He almost stumbled when Kuno chucked the bottom half of the sword at Ranma while reaching into his blue robe for a wooden bokken. The crowd gasped at the momentum the broken sword twirled with. Even with the blade cut it still held at least four inches of steel making it a legitimate threat. Some of the girls in the crowed covered their eyes while others covered their mouths and the remaining ones covered both when Ranma began to spin as soon as he reached the sword. The men cringed but kept watching to see where the sword caught Ranma at.  
  
Kuno wasn't taking any chances as he raised his bokken in a defensive stance and waited for Ranma to finish his spin. He braced himself when Ranma launched himself forward still spinning. Kuno watched in horror as Ranma sent a backfist glowing with dark power through his bokken, connecting with his face. As his face jerked right Ranma's left hand followed up his right backfist, clutching the sword by the hilt. Ranma's left hand passed by Kuno with nothing more than a 'woosh' sound.  
  
Kuno slowly looked up at Ranma who stood only arms length away from him. Ranma's face was expressionless in contrast to Kuno's. Kuno shook with barely restrained rage, as he sported an identical cut on his left cheek as he had on his right. "You bastard!" Kuno swung with a clumsy punch at Ranma. Grabbing the punch with his right hand Ranma dropped the blade and sunk his left glowing fist into Kuno's gut. Kuno dropped to his knees heaving before lying down in an almost fetal position.  
  
Gen walked up to Ranma, eyeing the boy on the ground. "Not bad, A bit harsh, but I suppose you have your reasons... or not, it doesn't really matter." Gen shrugged as he and Ranma began to walk by the spectators who dumbly made room for the two.  
  
As the two entered the school and made their way to the office, the students outside were still in semi-shock.  
  
"Man, Ranma really did snap!"  
  
"I heard he's beat almost everbody up! His dad, Ryouga, Mousse, and now Kuno!"  
  
"It looked like somebody got him pretty good though..."  
  
"Maybe it was that old pervert that's always around?"  
  
"What about the old man he came with? Think he did it? After all it's always the old ones that get Ranma, you know."  
  
"What do you think Nabiki?"  
  
The whole mob went silent at the question before turning to the middle Tendo sister.  
  
Nabiki sweated under their gaze, not so much because of them but because she really had no idea. "Well... I really don't know. I haven't heard of the old pervert being around lately...Wait! Why the hell am I answering you all for free?!"  
  
The students began grumbling to themselves. Akane and Ukyo eventually headed to the source for an answer as they entered the school. By the time the crowd quieted and headed for the school doors they were once again riled up when Akane came flying out the doors followed by a mallet brandishing Ranma.  
  
__________  
  
Gen was walking behind the limping Ranma as he kept stopping when he would come upon some odd entry in Ranma's records. 'How can one boy cause so much destrucion to one school...' Little did Gen know that any and every incident that Ranma was part of no matter how small or large were attributed to him solely. So every wall Ryouga or Shampoo broke, every fight on school grouds between the fiancees or rivals, everytime Happosai showed up, any chi draining by Hinako. and even when the principle went on one of his crazier ideas was somehow blamed on Ranma.  
  
Before Gen could question Ranma on his improper school behavior two young women ran up to the pigtailed teen.  
  
"Ranma!"  
  
"Ran-chan"  
  
"Hello Akane, Ucchan..." Ranma thought he saw Ukyo brighten up when he addressed her.  
  
'He still called me Ucchan...' Ukyo tried not to be obvious in her good cheer.  
  
"Where have you been? Auntie's been really sad since you left us like you did." Akane broke Ukyo out of her happy mood.  
  
"I bet she was... She would have preferred for me to depart by way of a knife in my stomach and my head rolling across the floor." Ranma snorted.  
  
"You should be ashamed of yourself talking about auntie like that!" Akane cried while poking Ranma in the chest.  
  
Slapping her hand away Ranma walked past her "Tell her if she wants my head then she's going to have to come and take it. I won't allow anyone to dictate my life to me."  
  
"Don't you walk away from me when I'm talking to you!" Akane shouted.  
  
"Shut up women!" Ranma yelled in annoyance.  
  
"You Jerk!" Akane ran up to Ranma with her trusty mallet in her arms. As she swung it down upon Ranma he turned to her and caught the mallet with the flat of his hand. As he tugged it away from her, Akane stumbled past him towards the door. The two both spun to face the other, Akane with rage filled eyes, and Ranma with a cold facade.  
  
*Wham*  
  
Apparently, Ranma also spun with her mallet still in his arms, point proven when Akane received a blow from it into her stomach. Ukyo's mouth dropped to the floor as she watched Akane fly out the door and onto the ground right in front of the throng of student still outside.  
  
Ranma walked out after Akane. "I told you I won't allow anyone to control my life. That includes deciding if I need a malleting by my one time fiancee. Goodbye Akane Tendo." Ranma tossed the mallet away and began to catch up with Gen who had already started for the gates during Ranma's 'goodbye'.  
  
"R-ran-chan?" Ukyo ran at a controlled pace up to him.  
  
"Yeah?" Ranma asked her with a questioning gaze.  
  
"Do you really hate us all so much?"  
  
"What?... No, I guess it does look that way, but I just need to get away from here. I don't hate any of you... well, maybe Genma." Ranma thought about it a moment. "Yeah, I might hate him. But I don't really hate the rest of you. I just hated the fact that everyone would try to tell me what I had to do. Never asking for my opinion. I can't live that kind of life anymore and I just blew up. You will always be my best friend... So I promise to keep in touch. Deal?"  
  
"Deal Ran-chan." Ukyo tried not to let her tears fall as Ranma turned away and limped off behind Gen.  
  
"So are you ready to begin our journey Ranma?" Gen asked when they were a good distance away from the school.  
  
"Yes, the path I have chosen is set and I'm ready to travel it." Ranma replied with a smirk  
  
__________  
  
"And that's how I left Nerima all those years ago." Ranma smiled at Ranko.  
  
"So you got beat by some guy named Akuma, eh?" Akane challenged.  
  
"Akane! don't speak that name!" Soun clamped his hand across her mouth.  
  
Genma meanwhile attempted to check out around the restuarant for any signs of him.  
  
Nabiki let out a tired sigh. "So just what's so scary about this guy daddy?"  
  
Genma decided to answer so that Soun could make sure Akane didn't doom them all. "Akuma is a... creature so powerful that even the master would not face him. It's rumored that he was once human before he gained some sort of dark power and received the title 'The Master of the Fist.' He travels the world looking for the best martial artists alive and challenges them to a duel to the death if they're strong enough. He's unbeatable. I surprised you lived through the fight boy."  
  
Rose intruded upon the conversation at this point. "Oh I guess you couldn't have known, but right now Ranma is the master of the fist."  
  
Genma blinked at Rose, then blinked at Ranma, then fainted. He was quickly followed by Soun.  
  
"Wow! does that mean you're the best there is?" Ranko asked her older brother.  
  
Ranma smiled at her "Yep, I'm the strongest human alive."  
  
All those still conscious wondered at the wording of that statement.  
  
"Yeah right, I bet you just got lucky when you beat him!" Akane stood up leaning across the table bracing herself on her arms.  
  
Ranma raised an eyebrow "If I didn't know better I'd say that was a challenge..."  
  
"That's right I'm challenging you! I'll show you how good I am." Akane gave him a smug grin.  
  
"No."  
  
"Right here, right... No?" Akane blinked at his answer.  
  
"If you want to fight me you have to earn it."  
  
"You! *Ahem* I'll have you know that I fought Saffron. So what about that?" Akane continued to grin at him.  
  
It was Ranma's turn to blink. 'Ukyo never wrote to me about that... Then again Ukyo's life doesn't revolve around the Tendo's anyway.' Ranma smiled to himself 'Akane never said she beat Saffron or if she fought him alone or with help...' "So? I beat Saffron when I was still a kid." Ranma waved her off.  
  
Akane spluttered for a moment before getting angry. "What are you a coward?" 'That'll get him for sure!'.  
  
Ranma frowned for a moment before he placed his hands on the table in between Akane's. Before she noticed Ranma's hands, he swung them out sweeping Akane's support from under her, then slamming her head onto the table. He pushed her into her chair and threw an envelope at her as she cleared her head.  
  
"You son of a... what's this?" Akane blinked at the envelope.  
  
"An invitation." Ranma smirked. "The upcoming tounament is a two on two battle. One individual from most of the King of Fighters teams will be entering along with some of the more well known underground fighters."  
  
"I have to have a partner?" Akane asked as she started to open the invitation.  
  
"Akane and Ranma will be partners!" Cried the now woke duo of Genma and Soun.  
  
"Sorry that's not possible, I'm already signed up as his partner." Smiled Rose.  
  
"You are?" Everyone blinked when Ranma asked that question.  
  
"Of course, unless you wanted to ask either..." Rose smirked as she trailed off.  
  
"That was low. But you're right I don't want to partner up with either of them." Ranma quickly stated before Rose could name any names.  
  
"Them? them who?" Ranko asked.  
  
"Just some ladi... er, fighters I know. No one important." Ranma tried not to sound to suspicious. The fact that everyone, including Ranko, raised an eyebrow at him shot that down.  
  
"Anyway it's getting kind of late, so..." Ranma said apologetically to Ranko.  
  
"Awww." Ranko whined "I'm not sleepy. I want to know what happened after you left Nerima with the nice man Gen."  
  
"Nice? Gen is an assassin." Ranma chuckled.  
  
The others, with the exception of Rose, blanched at that.  
  
"What's an assassin?" Ranko asked.  
  
Ranma began to open his mouth when Rose interrupted him, seeing as how no one else was going to try to. "Ranma we have a lot of planning ahead of us... we can talk to Ranko tomorrow."  
  
Ranma blinked at the face Rose was giving him. "Right... um, I guess I'll see you tom..."  
  
"I can't let you do that boy." Genma spoke up.  
  
"Oh?" Ranma looked at the man. "And just why is that?"  
  
"You already interrupted Ranko's... dammit, Keiko's training enough as it is." Genma crossed his arms.  
  
Ranma's face hardened as he turned to Nodoka. "And what is your opinion on this?"  
  
Nodoka cleared her voice "Well she does want to be a great martial artist so she needs to train with a good teacher..."  
  
"A good teacher? Do you remeber what I warned you about last time I saw you?" Ranma pressed on.  
  
"Yes, you told me if Genma tried any crazy martial arts training on Ranko you would step in. But Genma hasn't done anything drastic yet." Nodoka hoped Genma wouldn't let her down... again.  
  
"How can you not call the Neko-ken training drastic?" Ranma almost shouted.  
  
The gasp of several other individuals in the building warned Nodoka that she wasn't going to like whatever the Neko-ken was. But still for the sake of her daughter she had to know. "What exactly is the Neko-ken?"  
  
Ranma opened his mouth then closed it back up and turned to everyone else in the room. "No one told her about the Neko-ken in all these years?"  
  
The silence was more than answer enough for him. "I don't believe this." Ranma muttered to himself. "Nodoka..." Both Ranma and Nodoka flinched at that, even though Ranma did a very good job of hiding it, "The Neko-ken is a martial arts technique that requires a child, maybe... I'm not sure if the age is required or if Genma is just a moron. Anyway you take the student and you wrap him or her in fish sausages or some other type of food that will appeal to starving cats... actually it might not even matter what food you use..." Ranma let out a breath to pull himself together, he kept veering off topic, he guessed it was because he really didn't want to explain this. "It's like this, you take the trainee wrap them in food and toss them into a pit with starving cats. As the cats claw for the food the trainee obviously receives scratches and scrapes from the famished cats. Once the pain becomes to much the victim... or trainee if you will, becomes scared of the cats. As the trainee is thrown in again and again the fear becomes too great turning into a full blown phobia of the creatures. Finally when the situation is at it's most desperate the trainee basically retreats into their mind. This allow the body to use simple survival instincts as well as extreme adrenaline to protect itself. With only the cats as examples, the mind uses them as the foundation for it's basic logic."  
  
"What exactly does that mean?" Asked a shaky Nodoka.  
  
"The trainee... or Keiko would have been thrown into a pit of starving cats until the pain and fear drove her to black out and act like a wild animal... a cat to be precise." Ranma declared.  
  
"M-my God!" Nodoka looked at Ranko until she turned back to Ranma "Wait all those years ago you said Genma put you through some kind of training that took away some of your sanity... it was the Neko-ken wasn't it?"  
  
"Exactly."  
  
"B-but... Genma wouldn't do something to hurt you that badly on purpose... he... he's your father!" Nodoka's face was covered in tears.  
  
Genma began to look back and forth between his wife and... Ranma. "Boy stop exaggerating!" Nodoka looked at Genma with hope in her eyes "The only reason you went insane was because you were to weak. Keiko will be fine." 'Right after I used that memory altering shampoo thing.'  
  
Ranma stared at Genma as if he was seeing him for the first time. "You... you still plan on teaching it to her."  
  
Everyone looked at Genma in shock. "Of course I'm going to teach it to her. She will be the best ever. You just don't want her to reach her potential and become better than even you." Genma smirked.  
  
Ranma spoke with ice in his veins "You're correct I don't want her to become better than me. Do you know what I've been through to get to this level. I've come inches from death twice now. Do YOU want her to go through that?"  
  
"Ha! You're just trying to scare her. You seem perfectly fine to me." Genma countered.  
  
"Why don't we ask Ranko then?" Ranma offered.  
  
Genma quickly ran over to the girl who was trying to comfort her mother. "Keiko you want to be the greatest right?"  
  
Ranko began to answer until Ranma cut her off. "That's not the question you should be asking her Genma. The question is does she want to be put back in the dark pit with the cats again."  
  
"Now Keiko..." Genma began.  
  
"Stop!" Nodoka screamed. "Keiko dear, do you want to learn the Neko-ken?"  
  
"Um..." The little girl bit her bottom lip and dragged her foot on the floor in a circle pattern. "Do you use the Neko-ken Ranma?"  
  
Ranma smiled at the girl. "No Ranko I don't use the Neko-ken. You're not really the best if you aren't the one fighting."  
  
Genma snorted "But it is your body that's fighting."  
  
"There is a difference between your body fighting and you fighting. The Neko-ken is almost like being possessed." Ranma spoke to Genma like one would speak to child.  
  
"Ranko?" Nodoka asked.  
  
Ranma clenched his fist, Genma looked at Keiko hopefully, And everyone else just held their breath. "I don't know" Ranko began to cry. "I don't want to upset daddy or Ranma." Keiko began to sniffle.  
  
"Ranko... I'll be honest with you; I really don't want you to try to learn the technique... but if you decide too I won't be mad at you. I promise." Ranma put as much sincerity in his voice as he could.  
  
"That's a good girl Keiko. See you can learn the Neko-ken and keep everybody happy." Genma cheered.  
  
Ranma's eyes grew wide 'Damn that bastard!' As Ranma began to walk towards Genma, small lines appeared on his back. No one looking could make it out as anything, in fact it seemed incomplete. Rose however understand the significance of it. "Ranma!"  
  
Nodoka, Genma, and Ranko turned towards him. "Genma..." Ranma had to restrain himself from attacking the man right then and there. "Show Nodoka the training manual for the Neko-ken."  
  
Genma began to sweat profusely "I... don't have it on me at this moment."  
  
"Rose?"  
  
"It's in his gi on his left side." She helpfully supplied.  
  
Ranma reached for it quicker than Genma expected and grabbed it. As he passed Genma to give it to Nodoka, he was attacked from behind. As Ranma flew through the window to the outside he actually was rather pleased. 'Foolish Genma, I guess I can't let him attack me without retaliating.'  
  
Genma leaped over the broken window and landed on the suspiciously deserted street. For some reason everyone hightailed it out of the area when they saw who was sitting in the restaurant that day. "Boy I don't know what you're trying to pull by planting that book on me, but I won't allow you to trick Nodoka like this."  
  
Ranma began laughing as he stood. "Genma. I let you off easy last time." Ranma slowly turned towards Genma. "But I'm not in a hurry today. So I'll take my time with you."  
  
"Is Ranma going to Hellfire daddy again?" Ranko asked.  
  
"Hopefully that will be all he does... I really don't think we want to see him use 'Death's Embrace' on Genma." Rose answered.  
  
"Death's Embrace?" Nodoka yelped.  
  
"It's what he used to become the 'Master of the Fist'. It's not very nice."  
  
Everyone just nodded in understanding.  
  
Genma charged, throwing combinations that would have left the old Ranma shell shocked. His only reward was a series of dodges by the smirking 'boy' that let the present Genma speechless. 'Ranma didn't even have to block a single punch.' That was a much as Genma was willing to admit, the fact that the whole time Ranma stared him straight in the eyes and held his hands behind his back was not something he wanted to acknowledge.  
  
After taking a moment to contemplate the last exchange, Genma pressed on with a flurry of kicks and punches that even Happosai would have found impressive. Unfortunately, Ranma wasn't Happosai, well that was unfortunate in this situation. Instead Ranma actually had to use his hands to block, even it there were lazy ones. Pouring more and more energy into the attack, Genma fought the urge to scream in frustration, after all he wasn't Akane... At least that was what the old Akane would have done. If Genma what have taken a few more moments to think that through he would have realized that even though Akane no longer acted like that usually, she had been once Ranma returned.  
  
Retreating from the close contact with Ranma, the heaving martial artist took to the air hoping that Ranma had become lax in his mid-air training. Later Genma would look back and realize that this day was probably one of his worst. However it was not later, it still was today, and Genma instead thought today WAS his worst day ever.  
  
Ranma watched the poor excuse for a father leap into the air and decided to humor him. As the two traded attacks Ranma called to the man "If you're going to hold back, then I might as well finish this fight quickly anyway." And as if to bring the point home Ranma allowed Genma's haymaker, thrown in retaliation to Ranma's words, to land and send him flying into the second story wall of 'Ucchans'. Twisting moments before impact and rebounding off the wall, Ranma propelled himself directly over Genma before using his ki to perform the revised version of Gen's 'Oga' technique. Instead of bouncing off the wall and onto the ceiling before shooting down onto your opponent, Ranma thanks to his battles with Akuma and Herb, had figured a way to launch downwards without the use of a ceiling to ricochet from.  
  
Genma flipped to look up expecting to see Ranma soar overhead towards the building across the street and then come back at him. He was caught completely flatfooted, well the airborne equivalent of it, at the sight of Ranma shooting straight down into his stomach with Ranma's lower half enshrouded with that aggravating black aura.  
  
Arms clasped behind his back like during their first skirmish, Ranma drove Genma into the ground. As Genma fought off the pain of the attack, a combination of pavement, surprise, and that damn black aura, seemed to increase the ache more than Genma anticipated, Ranma addressed him for a second time. "It's time for you to give it everything you got Genma." Purposefully walking away from Genma and standing opposite of the onlookers from him, Ranma turned to wait for Genma's answer to his challenge.  
  
Genma slowly stood up and gave Ranma a stare that sent chills down everyone else's spine, particularly Nodoka and Soun. "Ranma, don't ever forget that I'm a master of the Anything Goes style."  
  
Nodoka flinched at the chill in his voice. 'This is just like that time 7 years ago.'  
  
Soun was even more worried "The look he's giving Ranma... It's the same look he had when he decided to lock away the master."  
  
Ranma smiled "I've never forgotten. I think you're the one who needed to be reminded. But it seems you're ready to go at it for real now, don't disappoint me."  
  
Genma disappeared from view and Ranma's body was covered in black shadows. Genma reappeared with a kick meeting the black form of Ranma's head. Everyone gasped when Genma's foot sliced clean through "An after-image!" he bellowed before again leaving everyone's sight.  
  
*Wham*  
  
Everyone looked to the outside wall of the Ucchan's where Genma had slammed against it with his arms crossed over his face and an arm from a black figure constantly attacking his defense. With amazing timing Genma threw his arms out from their crossed position and blasted Ranma with an vacuum blade before Ranma's speed punches connected with his face too many times. The black shadows enshrouding Ranma seemed to vaporize away when he was attacked. Rolling backwards and onto his feet, Ranma gave Genma a wide grin. "Better!"  
  
Angered by Ranma's impudence Genma threw several vacuum blades in rapid succession before vanishing again. Ranma paused a moment at the sight before dodging the blades. As the last two came at both high and low positions Ranma actually jumped onto the higher blade before quickly flipping off.  
  
Genma's invisibility died a painful death at Ranma's move. "Impossible!"  
  
Ranma snorted. "Did you really think your old techniques would be that much of a threat to me? Come on let's finish this like we used to do when you trained me. I'll let you punch or kick me once then I'll do the same, you remember don't you." Ranma almost spit out the last sentence.  
  
"What is he talking about.?" Nodoka asked.  
  
Soun gulped 'If that lady's a psychic it'll probably be pointless to try to stay silent.' "Well, one of our training exercises when we were with the master was to trade punches with each other. It improved our threshold for pain. As well as Genma improving his endurance and me learning the more vulnerable spots on a body. I imagine one of the reasons Ranma was always so good at recovering from injuries was because of similar training with Genma. I honestly don't know when the two of them began that kind of exercise... I'm sure Ranma wasn't very young." Soun amended quickly.  
  
Genma growled "I'll make you regret your arrogance. KIYAH!" Genma practically flew across the space between him and Ranma. The watchers could feel the wind blow as he passed them. Genma's whole body was glowing with power as he neared ever closer to Ranma.  
  
Ranma began to laugh as Genma closed in on him. "Oh before I forget, I hit a pressure point on you." Ranma chuckled.  
  
Genma's aura blinked out of existence when he was only inches away from Ranma. Genma grabbed his hand in pain when he connected with Ranma's unmoving face. "My turn." Ranma cocked his arm back began to swing at Genma, only to stop halfway. Everyone blinked when Genma jumped away before Ranma even began his attack.  
  
"Going for your secret technique eh?" Ranma smiled as Genma continued to jump back from him. "It won't work tonight." Ranma covered his body in black shadows again.  
  
Genma stopped moving and tried to sense Ranma. He was pretty sure the black figure standing where Ranma originally was was an after-image. He gasped as he felt Ranma right behind him, breathing down his neck. "What now Genma?"  
  
Genma tried to jump to the rooftops to escape but was given an rude reminder of his lack of power when he barely made it to the second floor of the buildings. Ranma flipped onto his hands and sprung up into the air. As he reached Genma he threw hundreds of kicks into Genma's back while staying upside down and rising into the air.  
  
"Rising lightning kick!" Was the last thing Genma heard before passing out.  
  
Ranma laid a final kick into Genma back, allowing the kick to send himself flying back to the ground where landed on his hands. Flipping back onto his feet Ranma watched Genma fly a few more feet into the air before plummeting back to earth.  
  
Turning to Nodoka, Ranma picked up the Neko-ken manual and tossed it to her. "Read it. I'll see you tomorrow to hear your decision on Ranko and her training with Genma. Rose if you don't mind, I think we have things to discuss."  
  
Rose nodded to him before giving everyone a smile "It was interesting meeting you all. I hope to see some of you at the 'Masters of the Fist tournament'. I believe there will be a few surprises you don't want to miss." Rose smirked before joining Ranma as he walked towards Ranko.  
  
"I'll see you again tomorrow." Ranma smiled at the little redhead.  
  
"Okay, you promise to tell me some more about what happened when you went with Gen to China?"  
  
"I promise." Ranma nodded. He then faced the others "I'll stop by tomorrow before I leave Ucchan. Until next time Tendo's." Ranma waved as he stepped beside Rose and strolled away.  
  
"Hmm... It will be difficult to get him engaged to one of my daughters..." Soun scratched his chin. He gulped when he felt several piercing glares being sent his way. "But for now I should see to Genma." Soun wasted no time in putting some distance between him and his girls.  
  
Nodoka looked down at the book in her hands. "I have a feeling I won't like what's in here..."  
  
Nabiki spoke up next "Believe me you won't." She then walked over to the unresponsive Genma and kicked him in the belly.  
  
"Nabiki!" Soun cried.  
  
"Come on, you heard he tried to teach the neko-ken to Keiko. He deserves it."  
  
Soun declined to comment.  
  
__________  
  
"You know Bison is coming." Rose mentioned to Ranma.  
  
"I figured he would. Who's he teaming with?"  
  
"Geese."  
  
"Interesting." was all Ranma said.  
  
"Are you sure about Iori and Chizuru teaming up? You do remember what happen to his last partners." Rose glanced at him.  
  
"I believe she can help him." Ranma gave Rose a mysterious smile that suited her better than him.  
  
"Because she's from one of the clans?" Rose raised an eyebrow. 'Kyo's from one of them as well and he sure isn't much of a help to Iori...'  
  
"Heh. I had forgotten about that." Ranma smiled.  
  
Rose stopped walking "It that isn't why..."  
  
"Don't worry about it, you weren't there for all of Yagami's training."  
  
"What's that supposed to mean?"  
  
"What about some of the other teams?" Ranma changed the subject.  
  
"Well... Kyo has his teammate." Rose smiled at Ranma's twitch. 'He's still upset at Kyo for trying that move on Iori and Orochi.'  
  
"Well who is it." Ranma pressed on.  
  
Rose gave Ranma a heart stopping smile. "Terry Bogard."  
  
Ranma paused in his walk. "Really. Very Interesting." His smile was almost ear to ear. "This tournament is going to be fun..."  
  
To Be Continued.  
  
Next time: Travels- Ranma's journey from Japan to China with Gen is full of challenges, and not all physical. Also what will Nodoka decide after reading the Neko-ken manual. And what other teams will be announced?  
  
quail12001@yahoo.com 


	4. Travels

The Dark Side of the Art By: Q A Ranma 1/2 - Street Fighter - King of Fighters crossover Disclaimer: None of the character within this story belong to me, they belong to Rumiko Takahashi, Capcom, and SNK respectively.  
  
Travels  
  
Ranma paused in front of the hotel he was staying at "So, are you coming up?"  
  
Rose blinked at the question "Why Ranma! I didn't think you were so forward when it came to these matters... I mean sure you are in your fights but..."  
  
Ranma cocked his head to the side "Wha... Hey! *ahem* I meant were you planning on discussing anything else with me tonight." 'I swear she's the only one who can get to me like this.' He thought with a blush.  
  
The purple haired women mock pouted "I guess we can just talk" 'I still got it.'  
  
Grumbling about teenage hormones he thought he had outgrown, Ranma lead Rose to his room.  
  
__________  
  
"Alright Keiko, it's time for bed." Nodoka walked with Keiko to her room.  
  
"But Mom..."  
  
"No buts. Besides the sooner you go to bed the sooner tomorrow will come and the sooner you'll see Ranma." The Saotome matriarch smiled a sad smile at her child as the little girl ran to her room and jumped on her bed. 'At least Ranma still cares about someone in this family.'  
  
As Keiko settled into bed she asked her mom the question Nodoka had been dreading answering. "Mom, what are you going to do about Daddy teaching me the Neko-ken?" Keiko grimaced with her mom hung her head.  
  
"I... don't know for sure yet." Nodoka half lied. After reading the instructions for the training and the side effects as well as the blatent warning of 'DO NOT USE!' that was in it, there was no way she would let Keiko learn it. But she knew Genma very well. And Genma knew her well. There was no question in her mind that he would still try to teach their daughter the technique, and that he would use her sense of honor to get her to agree... just like he did when he took Ranma. She had came up with the 'man among men' contract in desperation and it had completely backfired, she couldn't afford to make the same mistake twice.  
  
So then what could she do?  
  
__________  
  
Sitting across from his... friend, Ranma looked over the list of fighters he would have to deliver invitations to. "I'll simply give Ken, his and Ryu's invitation. Guile shouldn't be a problem. Guy and Cody? Sure you don't want to invite them?" Ranma pleaded more than asked.  
  
"What's that supposed to mean?" Rose tried to look clueless.  
  
"You know you really can't pull off the clueless look dressed up like that... eccentric and weird maybe, but clueless..."  
  
"Eccentric and weird? That's not what you thought when we first met." Rose smiled when Ranma's eye twitched and he turned back to the list.  
  
"Yeah, yeah, it's just that Guy can get a little annoying with the whole 'I sense a dark power within you' bit. Cody's even more annoying, I mean if you're going to call yourself a hero then you shouldn't be spending time behind bars." Ranma snorted.  
  
"Like you have room to talk. He was arrested because of all the fights he was in." Rose pointed out. "I think you don't like Guy because you're jealous, and you dislike Cody because... well he does have a bit of an ego, but you should be used to that."  
  
Ignoring her second jibe in favor of her first, Ranma spoke up. "Jealous? Why the hell would I be jealous? I mean for God's sake he's some self righteous ninja... that doesn't add up from what I know about ninjas."  
  
"Your jealous because he gives me all that attention when I'm around." Rose then pretended to look around the room as Ranma stumbled for words for a moment.  
  
Regaining his calm and smirking, he replied "Sorry, but I'm not interested in Guy. He can look at whoever he wants."  
  
"Good, I didn't say you were jealous over him..." She gave him one of those looks that had turned lesser men into putty.  
  
"Moving on." the blushing martial artist interrupted. "I see you left me the Womens team and the Sakazaki team from last years tournament. It couldn't have been that hard to contact them for Chizuru."  
  
"Yes, I asked her to allow you to deliver those invitations personally. I should warn you, be prepared for a surprise when you meet the Sakazaki family again."  
  
"Oh." Ranma looked back at Rose, waiting for her to continue. Realizing that she wasn't going to, he sighed. "I think that's enough for tonight. I got a important meeting for tomorrow." Ranma walked over to the mini-fridge to retrieve a bottle of water. While he was bent over trying to reach the bottle in the back of the fridge, and muttering about what he should do to people who put small refrigerators on the floor, he heard Rose call to him.  
  
"I guess I'll be calling it a night myself, sweet dreams."  
  
"Bye." Ranma called out from on his knees as he stretched for the water. 'As soon as I want some cold water it has to be difficult to get it... figures.' Barely paying attention to his surroundings, he idly noted that the hotel door closing after Rose's exit sounded like it came from the opposite side of the room. Standing up and taking a long pull on the drink, Ranma sighed in contentment.  
  
Placing the bottle back in the mini-fridge, near the front, Ranma made his way to the bedroom to finally get some rest. He quickly deduced that he wouldn't be getting a peaceful rest that night as soon as he saw his bed. "Um... Rose?"  
  
"Shh. I'm trying to sleep here." Rose returned from under the covers.  
  
"Oh sorry... Dammit Rose, don't try that crap with me." Ranma rubbed the bridge of his nose in irritation. 'I can't believe she almost got me with that.'  
  
"Look Ranma, I'm tired and I didn't stop to get a room when I came in."  
  
Ranma's refusal died upon his lips as he took a look at her expression. "You still have the nightmares don't you?" It was more a statement than a question.  
  
"Please Ranma let me stay here tonight."  
  
"Like I can say no..." Ranma headed back out the room.  
  
"Where are you going?"  
  
"To get some cold water." Was his angry reply.  
  
Taking a second to see if she could catch a glimpse of why he was angry with her, she heard his strongest thought. 'I'll kill Bison with my bare hands for doing this to her!'  
  
"Ranma, I know you don't like being in your cursed form, so don't worry about it. I trust you."  
  
Ranma stared at her before nodding. "If you're sure." 'cause I'm not...'. Even though Rose occasionally asked to sleep in the same bed as Ranma, he had never gotten used to the idea of any women laying beside him without trying to do more than just sleep. One of the many things about Rose that kept him off balance he supposed.  
  
__________  
  
The next morning Ranma woke up to an empty bed. 'It took me forever to get to sleep with her next to me, and she's knocked out the second I lay down in the bed...' Sensing that she was nowhere in the room, he guessed she had already left for home. 'I swear she seems to pop up at the most interesting moments and leaves before you know it... Now that I think about it, she seems to show up whenever I'm in a tense situation, like she's... Damn, I'm really going to have to thank her one day.'  
  
Focusing on getting ready for his final day in Nerima before heading for the States, Ranma walked towards the bathroom for a quick shower. 'What the hell is that on my face?... Is that lipstick?' He turned his head to the side and put it close to the window. "It is lipstick." Guessing it was Rose's way of saying goodbye, Ranma continued his business in the bathroom.  
  
After leaving the bathroom he thought out his schedule for the day. 'I'll stop by Ucchans for breakfast before I head to see Ranko and... Nodoka. Afterwards I'll head to the airport and book a flight to Los Angeles.' Nodding to himself he finished preparing for another day. 'Things have been actually rather calm for Nerima standards...' He cursed himself for thinking such thoughts, knowing full well that Nerima would rectify that problem before he could leave.  
  
"Oh well, I guess it'll be interesting." He smiled while grabbing his bag and heading out. As he made his way out of the hotel lobby and onto the streets of the city, he was barely able to turn in the direction of Ucchans before he heard his name being roared.  
  
"RANMA!"  
  
Calmly looking back to the voice, Ranma was briefly shocked at the figure before him. The plain green shirt and black jeans the man was wearing weren't familiar, neither was the black bandana or boots. However the face, well that was another story, "I'll be damned, if it isn't Mr. P-chan himself."  
  
__________  
  
"It is you! What are you doing in Nerima?" Ryouga asked as he sized Ranma up. 'Ranma looks a lot stronger than I remember, not much of a surprise, but he also looks more intense and imposing with the dark robe and that walk that just screams 'DANGER'. I guess the rumors were true.'  
  
Ranma raised an eyebrow at Ryouga. "What's this? No 'prepare to die' or surprise attack for revenge, what about the 'for what you did to Akane' crap?"  
  
Ryouga grinned "Well I can't say I condone your treatment of Akane, but I'm not her protector or boyfriend so it's not my place. On the other hand, don't think that I've forgotten about our last fight 7 years ago. I won't fight you now though... Because I have this." Ryouga reached behind him.  
  
Ranma narrowed his eyes as he waited for Ryouga to bring out whatever nasty surprise he had hidden. He really hoped this wouldn't turn out like the debacle with Mousse a few years back. He blinked when Ryouga pulled out a letter and envelope. "Is that an invi..."  
  
"An invitation to the Masters of the Fist tournament. It was for my teacher but he thought I would have better use for it." Ryouga shrugged. "I guess he was right."  
  
"So who's your partner?"  
  
"Heh heh, well you see... it's kinda like this... um..." Ryouga babbled for a second.  
  
"You don't have one." Ranma deadpanned.  
  
"Yep." Ryouga smiled sheepishly at him.  
  
Smiling, Ranma waved Ryouga towards him. "Walk with me, I'm headed for Ucchans. I'll treat you to lunch."  
  
It was Ryouga's turn to blink " That's rather nice of you. I heard you had turned really mean."  
  
"I did."  
  
__________  
  
Hearing the chime above her door, Ukyo looked up at the odd scene. 'Is that Ryouga walking with Ranma?! And are they talking about clothes?' She sweatdropped as she saw Ryouga pull at his jeans and look back at Ranma scowling, as they neared her counter.  
  
"They hold up pretty well in a fight I have you know. I wouldn't be talking about other people's fashion sense if I were you." Ryouga snorted.  
  
"Please, I look good in this. Ain't that right Ucchan." Ranma smiled at her.  
  
"Definitely, though I may be a bit biased." She smiled at the two "I don't remember you telling me you ran into Ryouga after you left Nerima Ranma."  
  
"That's because I didn't. I bumped into him in the street, sort of, on my way over here."  
  
"So... You two decided to fight after getting some breakfast or something?"  
  
Ryouga answered her "I plan on taking him on in the tournament. Well, as soon as I get a partner."  
  
"That's right, I meant to mention it earlier, but there's someone else in Nerima whose entering the tournament." Ranma casually remarked as he began to look through the menu. "I'll have the usual, what about you Ryouga?"  
  
Ryouga almost facefaulted "Screw the food! whose entering the tourament?"  
  
"You're not trying to say my food's no good are you? I happen to think my pork okonomiyaki is pretty tasty..." Ukyo tried to look upset.  
  
"Come on guys, I need a partner! So whose is it? Kuno, Kodachi, Genma, maybe Hap..."  
  
"Akane." Ranma threw in.  
  
"Akane?" Ryouga blinked.  
  
"Akane." Ukyo nodded.  
  
"A-Akane?" Ryouga asked again. "She was invited and I wasn't?"  
  
"Well Ryouga I really didn't know where you were, plus it was kind of a sudden decision. The invitation was originally for Balrog the boxer." Ranma shrugged.  
  
"I don't know... I really don't think I want to be partners with her." Ryouga rubbed his smooth chin.  
  
Ukyo raised an eyebrow at the action 'he should at least wait until he has some stubble before doing that...'. "Um, why wouldn't you be partners with her?"  
  
"I realized that I never really liked Akane as much as I thought and whenever I see her I become ashamed of myself." Ryouga answered sullenly.  
  
"What the hell are you talking about?" Ranma asked as Ukyo handed him his food.  
  
"My master was able to get me to admit a lot of hard truths to myself while I studied under him. One of those was that my fixation on Akane was actually me trying to bring you pain and feeling a connection to her for being someone who also saw you as royal jerk... no offense, actually I don't really mind if you find that offensive." Ryouga seemed to think it over.  
  
"Okay... Say who is your master? he must be something special to get through your thick skull. Offense intended." Ranma smirked.  
  
Chuckling Ryouga answered him "Dhalsim."  
  
"Really? the yoga guy?" Ranma got out as he continued to stuff his face. Ukyo shook her head at the display.  
  
"Yes, the 'yoga guy'." Ryouga answered while rolling his eyes at Ranma's description.  
  
"Wow. How did you manage that?" Ranma asked. Before Ryouga could answer Ukyo spoke up. "Who's this Dhalsim?"  
  
"Well Dhalsim is a warrior from India who practices an extreme version of Yoga. He doesn't look like much. He's bald and really skinny. His head is painted with three red strips across the top and two under each eye. Even weirder is his jewelry... he wears huge loop earings and a necklace with three small skulls on it. I came across him after I, ah, traveled to India..." Ryouga shifted in his seat.  
  
"In other words got lost..." Ukyo waved him on.  
  
"Yeah, I had been traveling with some guy named Dan Hibiki, no relation... I hope. We ran into each other shortly after my fight with Ranma at the school. We both were looking for revenge of a sort and decided to travel together... I really just wanted him to show me back to Japan. I was in Thailand when I ran into him you see. When we reached the guy Dan was looking for, a man named Sagat, I knew he was in trouble. He was a huge man over 7 feet tall with a patch on his eye, the guy had a huge scar across his chest and one on the side of his head. He called himself the 'Emperor of Muay Thai' and believe me he deserves the title." Ryouga paused as he thought back to the behemoth Dan faced.  
  
"Even though Dan won the fight, it was obvious Sagat had let him win."  
  
"Maybe this Dan guy got lucky?" Ukyo commented, she had a small spot for the underdogs. "What?" Ukyo asked as Ranma tried to bite back his laughter.  
  
Ryouga looked at Ranma before continuing. "I guess you've heard of or have met him. Sorry Ukyo, but Dan almost blacked out when he received one uppercut from Sagat. Granted it was a really powerful one, a man as big as him crouching low to the ground like that before flying up and slamming his huge fist into you isn't something to sneeze at, but Dan could hardly stand after that."  
  
"Instead Dan started screaming about how Sagat killed his father and how he wanted revenge. I guess Sagat saw something in him or felt sorry for him, cause after that Dan's pathetic attempts at attacking Sagat actually landed. After landing his own uppercut, nowhere near as strong as the one he received, he started cheering and rolling around. When I looked at Sagat he had one eye... his only eye I guess, squinted open as he watched Dan make a fool of himself."  
  
"Since me and Dan supposedly had the same goals and ambitions it made me think... Did I want to end up like him? Someone so blinded by vengeance that I lose myself to it. Then I realized that I already had at moments let myself get to carried away. It was an eye opener. After that we parted ways and I eventually ran into Dhalsim. He could tell I was in some kind of rut and tried to help me out. I was less then polite in my refusal, one fight later and I was asking for him to teach me. You know what, I think I could use something to drink now, and whatever Ranma had to eat would be nice since he's paying." Ryouga finished.  
  
"You're actually paying for your food today?" Ukyo asked Ranma.  
  
"I was planning on trying to get it for free, I just told Ryouga I'd pay to sound nice, but sure." Ranma shrugged. "Well Ryouga, Akane really needs a partner and I don't see her getting anyone else. Just think about it. Oh yeah, I never answered your question as to why I was here. Did you know Genma tried to teach Ranko... I mean Keiko the Neko-ken."  
  
Ryouga almost spit out his drink at the information. "WHAT?!"  
  
"Yep, I found them a couple of days distance away from here in some woods, just starting the procedure to learn it. Needless to say I put a stop to that and returned Ranko, um Keiko, back here."  
  
"So you guys are calling her Ranko huh? I always thought it was a bad idea to tell her stories about you, you know rotting her mind and all." Ryouga smirked.  
  
"Ha ha, anyway I'm heading over to talk to Nodoka about it after I finish up here, I'll show you to the Tendo dojo if you like." Ranma offered.  
  
"I don't need to be shown the way anymore, thanks to Dhalsim's training. Do you mind if I go see Ranko with you? I can't help but like the kid, even though they tell her stories about our fights she never picks a side over it. She just loves to hear the stories, it's kind of nice to be looked up to... even if it's second place to you."  
  
"Sure you can come. It'll hopefully keep the tension down some." Ranma answered.  
  
"Well if Ryouga's going then so am I." Ukyo added as she started cutting off all her cooking equipment and then turned over the sign on her door. "As soon as the remaining customers leave we'll head out alright?"  
  
"Sure I'm in no rush" Ranma replied. Ryouga just kept eating.  
  
__________  
  
Keiko sweatdropped as her mother paced back and forth across the living room. She had wanted to take a look at the book about the Neko-ken, but her mom kept looking at it, cursing it, then pacing again. 'I hope Ranma gets here soon...'  
  
*Knock* *Knock*  
  
Both women jumped at the sound, one to run to the door the other just out of surprise. "Ranma's here!" Keiko shouted as she rounded the corner to the hallway leading to the front door.  
  
Nodoka waited patiently for her daughter and son to enter the room. The first person she saw was Keiko returning looking a little disappointed. "Keiko?"  
  
"It's just Daddy and the others..." Keiko slumped into a chair.  
  
"Please don't get all worked up over little ol' me Keiko." Nabiki laughed.  
  
"Sorry auntie, but Ranma's taking too long!" She whined to Nabiki as if the older women could some how fix the problem.  
  
Nodoka had to hide her distate for the panda being assisted into their home by Soun. She wasn't the least bit surpised that Kasumi entered the house with a huge smile or Akane's search of the hallway and family room.  
  
"He's not here yet sis." Nabiki smiled at Akane. The dark blue haired women relaxed.  
  
"Hello Genma." Nodoka bore into him.  
  
[Hello dear, I see that no good boy decided not to show his face here, I'd hate to have to teach him another lesson.]  
  
Keiko's mother had to take a moment to understand the sign. "You shouldn't say... write such things. Especially on one side of such a small sign." She quipped. The panda's face lost any cheer it had managed to produce when it didn't see Ranma around. "Keiko bring your father some hot water please."  
  
"Sure Mom." Keiko was glad to have something to do... even more so since it got her out of the tense situation in the living room.  
  
After retrieving the hot water Keiko took a moment to take a deep calming breath as she entered the fray once again. "Um, here you go Daddy."  
  
The panda took the cup of water and poured it over his head. "That's better. So dear, you didn't believe in that nonsense Ranma was talking about did you? You didn't read that book he planted on me right?" Genma forced a smile as he asked the question.  
  
"Regardless if the book was planted or not, it is authentic I even called the publishing house written on the back. They thought I was crazy for even considering teaching it to someone!" Nodoka huffed.  
  
"This is gonna be good." Nabiki whispered to her sisters.  
  
"Nabiki!" Soun exclaimed. Nabiki just gave him the 'look' effectively shutting him up.  
  
*Knock* *Knock*  
  
"Oh, that must be Ranma!" Keiko cheered as she rushed for the door again.  
  
Nabiki sweatdropped "that sounded awfully familiar..."  
  
"You don't say." Kasumi deadpanned, causing her two sisters and father to look at her in shock. "What?"  
  
After realizing Keiko was taking too long, everyone headed for the front door. They paused as they saw Keiko looking up at their guest.  
  
Keiko was completely stunned into silence as she looked up at her visitor. Ukyo wasn't really a surprise nor the black piglet, but it was the other person that froze her in place. Even as young as she was, Keiko new that the women before her was probably one of the most beautiful creatures alive. 'Wow, she's so beautiful I wonder if I'll be able to grow up to be anywhere near as pretty as her... she's even a fighter I can tell by her clothes, there just like Ranma's... Wait a minute NO WAY!'  
  
"Say Ranma, what's wrong with Ranko?" Ukyo asked.  
  
"R-Ranma?" Keiko fainted.  
  
"Would you look at that." Ranma snickered. P-chan squealed from his position on Ranma's shoulder.  
  
A whistle got the attention of the three. Looking up they saw all the Tendo's and Genma and Nodoka staring at them, with Nabiki holding two fingers in her mouth and still whistling.  
  
"Aren't you a total babe." Nabiki smirked as she finished whistling. The cursed martial artist was as tell as her male form now with long dark red hair tied in it's ponytail. Her blue-gray eyes were darker as well, giving her the vixen look.  
  
P-chan, Genma, and Soun nodded in agreement before remembering who they were talking about. Genma almost joined his daughter in slumber land, Soun smacked himself over the head, and P-chan jumped off Ranma's shoulder like it was burning him.  
  
"Heh, I have filled out nicely haven't I." Ranma gave Nabiki a sultry smiled, causing the other girl to blush a bit.  
  
Ukyo smacked Ranma upside the head. "Would you quit it. It was bad enough when you almost killed the ladle lady..."  
  
Everyone gulped at that "You tried to kill the old lady who's always watering the side walk?!" Akane screamed.  
  
"I don't try to kill people, either I do or don't and the only people I've killed were Saffron and Mousse... Damn, I wasn't planning on telling you all that." Ranma cursed herself for her slip.  
  
"What?!" Came from almost everyone except Ukyo, and of course the pig who couldn't say anything but "bwee!" .  
  
Trying to calm things down, Ukyo tried to direct them back to the ladle lady. "I mean the women was throwing out the water when me and these two were walking by and when it got on Ranma, she let out her dark aura to dry herself. The poor old women nearly had a heart attack." Kasumi seemed to be the only one to sigh in relief, the others continued to gape at Ranma.  
  
"You killed..." Akane began as she pointed at the apparently deadly Ranma.  
  
"Mousse?" Nabiki squeaked.  
  
"Yeah and I don't want to talk about it right now, I have more important things to discuss." Ranma turned to her one time mother. "Shall I bring Ranko into the living room while you give me your answer?"  
  
"Please do." Nodoka nodded. As her son turned daughter carried her second child, she heard Keiko moan and wake up.  
  
"What a dream... I could have sworn I saw this really pretty... lady... whose holding me right now... RANMA!" Keiko jumped out of Ranma's arms and pointed at her. "Wow! Is it really you? You look so pretty!"  
  
"Yeah it's really me, can you get me and Ryouga some hot water?" Ranma asked her sister. 'Oops, did I say Ryouga?' She turned to look at the piglet who was sneaking glances at Akane, while said girl was looking at the small animal with uncertainty. 'I guess she already knows...'  
  
"Here you go!" came a chipper voice from in front of her. Turning back to her sister, Ranma took the cup and started to pour the water on to herself. She raised an eyebrow when the little girl stared at her during the whole process. After using enough to change back into his male form, Ranma turned to Ryouga.  
  
"That was so COOL!" Ranma ignored his sister as he upended the cup over the pig 'Hasn't she seen Genma change?'. Right before the water hit P-chan, the pig and Ranma got wide eyes.  
  
"His clothes!"  
  
"Bwee!"  
  
Nodoka quickly covered Keiko's eyes before Ryouga changed. He blinked when his clothes were tossed to him almost immediately. As he picked them off his head he turned to Ukyo. "I figured you might not want your pack and clothes left in front of the door, sugar."  
  
"Yeah, well Ranma was the one carrying it." Ryouga grumbled, as he got dressed.  
  
"Okay already, let's get this show on the road, shall we." Ranma commented as he headed for the living room, everyone else following.  
  
"Mom, can I look now?"  
  
"Oh sure, sorry."  
  
Once everyone was seated, Ranma began. "So what's your decision?"  
  
Nodoka was only slightly caught off guard by Ranma's bluntness. "Well, I know for sure I can let her be taught the Neko-ken."  
  
"What! How can you say that. The only way to make her as good as him is to teach it to her! Besides she'll need to take over the dojo when Akane finishes teaching." Genma stood up.  
  
"If I'm not mistaken, Akane never learned the Neko-ken either." Nodoka replied calmly.  
  
"As the head of this household as well as her teacher, I demand that she learn it! It's for her own good. Surely you won't go against my word would you, wife?" Genma bore into her.  
  
"I.. I.." Nodoka faltered, she knew this was coming and had already made her decision but it was going against what she believed to be honorable.  
  
"Calm down Nodoka. Take your time, I still have to tell Ranko some more about my trip to China don't I. You can give your answer afterwards... oh and Genma you might like to hear that I confronted the 'Master' before I left Japan those 7 years ago."  
  
"What? But the master was missing before you even left."  
  
"Just listen will you. Anyway, are you ready to hear the story Ranko?"  
  
"Ready!"  
  
__________  
  
(We flash back to another, well, Flashback...)  
  
{Hello my home is Ranma.}  
  
"You're confusing home and name again." Gen told him.  
  
"Man, it's been two months and I'm still confusing those two!" Ranma complained.  
  
"Calm down, you'll get it. Besides I'm amazed at how fast you picked up as much as you have."  
  
"Well, I heard it a lot when I was traveling through China. When you're being attacked by villagers left and right because of your father, you try to pick up any words that might warn you that you being targeted. I'm pretty good at learning languages anyway, I learned English when I was twelve. The army guy who taught me it was pretty harsh though, and kind of crazy..." Ranma trailed off.  
  
"Interesting, in any case a few more months and I think you'll have it down well enough to get by. And after spending some time in China you'll perfect it in no time." Gen smiled. Even though he was a tough taskmaster, when his student tried as hard as Ranma did it was hard to act tough. Mostly, because it wasn't necessary.  
  
{Hello, my name is Ranma... How are you?} Ranma took a moment to run it back in his head, before smiling and nodding to himself.  
  
"Not bad. But let us get to your training. We need to toughen up your fingers..."  
  
"No need. I'm pretty tough already. I learned this technique called the breaking point and it..." Ranma was cut off.  
  
"Did you train with it on each finger?" Gen asked with a demeaning tone.  
  
Ranma flinched "Well, not exactly... Fine what do I do?"  
  
"I believe it's pretty close to the training you used to learn that technique. You simply gather some stones together and stick all four finger into them repeatedly. You should do so twice every day now, 500 times each." Gen waited for an outburst.  
  
"Okay."  
  
And was quite disappointed.  
  
Ranma turned to go look for some more training equipment. 'I can't believe I'm still sore. Until I'm in better condition I can't train to increase too much in the physical department. It's just learning Chinese and meditating.' Ranma began to collect rocks and stones from the nearby stream, hoping not to get wet.  
  
While he was busy, Gen was facing the east. 'I feel another power coming...'  
  
The sound of a twig breaking was heard in the distance. Gen sat down at the camp to wait for his new guest. Once the person made their way to the clearing, Gen assessed him. A tall Japanese man with short brown hair and a red bandana, also wearing red-brown hand gaurds. He was also wearing a gi that was probably white once but had darkened over time. Gen guessed his age at about 18. "Hello young man, what brings you to my camp?"  
  
"Ah hello. My name's Ryu, I had felt a strong fighting spirit this way and came looking for a match." He bowed to Gen.  
  
"Actually there's two fighter here right now, but my companion isn't in the best of shape. I would be more than happy to have a match with you though."  
  
"I would appreciate it." Ryu returned, he looked to his left as he sensed someone approach.  
  
Ranma stepped through the foliage looking directly at Ryu. "Who's the new... Ryu?"  
  
"Ranma? Is that you?" Ryu looked him up and down. 'He's gotten really strong.'  
  
"Yeah it's me... Man you're huge! You been taking steroids or something?" Ranma joked.  
  
"Nah, you know me. I fight with power over speed and finesse, so it's only natural to 'beef' up as you would say." Ryu smiled at him.  
  
"You even know modern lingo... I suppose you finally left your hidden dojo in the wilds." Ranma smirked.  
  
"As a matter of fact I have. I've been traveling the globe fighting all types of men and women" Ryu turned back to Gen. "Anyway sir, I'd be happy to fight you."  
  
"Then lets go." Gen walked away from the tents that were set up and over to area that he and Ranma had used for meditating. It was an area that, even though grass still grew there it was significantly less than in other parts. One could tell that people often used that patch of land for training of some sort or another; that was one of the reasons they had stopped at that spot after all.  
  
Ranma walked over to the camp and deposited the rocks into a pile before sitting by a tree to watch the fight. When he was younger he had spent a few weeks training with Ryu, Ken, and some goofball named Dan. Even though he didn't talk much to Ryu or Dan, he was constantly trading insults with Ken. Something about the mixed Japanese guy really got to him. He doubted it was the dyed blonde hair he had, or the fact that Ken could beat him at the time. At the age of 13, Ranma still was at the stage in life where he lost the occasional match, and when he saw how good Ryu and Ken were it didn't bother him to much since he knew he was training to be as good as they were, maybe even before he turned 15 like them. No, he was pretty sure Ken got to him because he found Ken to be almost as cool as he thought he was at the time.  
  
'If Ryu, Ken and maybe Dan continued their training they should be amazing fighters by now. I can't wait to see this.' Ranma smiled to himself. The smile turned into a gasp as he saw the stance Ryu took 'That's why Akuma's style seemed familiar, it's the same as Ryu's... hmm, there does seem to be some differences though. Where Akuma held his hands open, Ryu's are closed into fist and he seems to bounce on his feet at a faster pace then Akuma did. Probably because he doesn't have the power to take as many punches as Akuma, so he needs to be able to move faster.'  
  
The stance taken by Gen was noted by Ranma as the mantis style. Both his hands in front of himself with the fingers pointed down. Both legs bent, one in front and one to the side. He rocked back and forth as his hands moved in a circular motion like a clock.  
  
A slight breeze rustling the trees seemed to call a start to the match as younger fighter cried out his attack.  
  
"Hadoken!"  
  
A blue fireball shot from his cupped hands towards his opponent who rolled under it towards his attacker. Before Ryu could recover from his move, Gen rolled out into a finger jab. Slightly bending over from the attack, Ryu received a foot to his face courtesy of Gen, who had raised up on his right arm to send his lower body towards him and lashing out a left kick.  
  
Even with the pain his face was in, the Japanese fighter realized that Gen was being held up by one hand. Taking advantage of the unorthodox move, Ryu went for a quick leg sweep. He hopped back after the attack landed.  
  
Gen rolled back to his starting position after being clipped up by Ryu. "You're faster than you look."  
  
"So I've been told." The teen returned.  
  
Ranma blinked at the new stance Gen was in. 'What kind of stance is that? It looks like a weird version of the crane or something...'  
  
The aged warrior held his hands, still with the finger pointed down, to his right side. His left hand near his chest level and his right back behind him. The right leg was bent into the air, as his left was supporting solely on the front of his feet, as he continued to sway back and forth.  
  
Reluctantly admitting that the old man probably had even more patience than he did, which was saying a lot, Ryu went on the offensive again. Dashing forwards, he went into a spinning jump kick to hopefully break Gen's defense. He was unprepared for Gen's counter. Spinning on the standing leg, Gen stretched his other one out to kick and cancel out Ryu's. As the two kicks connected, Gen pushed off with his left leg and brought his right one back down sending Ryu off balance and susceptible to Gen left foot.  
  
Ranma winced as Ryu received a second left foot to the face and went spinning in the air. 'The old man really is good.' He winced a second time as well as adding a "Woah!" at the next attack that landed.  
  
"Shoryuken!"  
  
Ryu used as much of his agility that he could muster to land on his feet after being sent twirling from Gen's strike. As soon as he landed in his crouch he performed his rising uppercut.  
  
Gen flew almost 8 feet into the air from the attack. Ryu closed in on him again as the older man landed on his back. Immediately attacking Gen when he stood, Ryu threw a low kick followed by a right hook and ending in a roundhouse kick.  
  
Gen switched his standing foot from his left to right as he hopped over the low kick. Parrying the right hook and ducking the roundhouse Gen struck with hundreds of punches in the span of a second.  
  
"Hyakurenko!"  
  
Ranma at first glance thought it was a one armed amaguriken. He reevaluated that when he noticed Gen interchanging punches with pressure point strikes and open palmed smacks. 'The old man's real good...'  
  
Staggering back Ryu unleashed his Super fireball in hopes of catching the old man at a vulnerable moment. Cupping his hands, it seemed as if electricity was gathering in his palms as he pushed his arms forwards.  
  
"Shinku Hadoken!"  
  
Ranma eyes grew wide at the attack 'That's almost as big as the fireball Akuma tried to take my head off with! Gen's done now.'  
  
Gen gritted his teeth, the boy was better than he expected. 'I should have taken someone who uses the same style as Akuma with more caution... but I'm still going to win!' Gen crouched extremely low and pulled back the arm he hadn't used during his last attack, and like a ghost glided across the ground. As he passed Ryu he called out his attack.  
  
"Zanei!"  
  
Ranma and Ryu both blinked as it seemed that nothing happened, and before either new it Ryu began to shake violently as if he was being attacked by an invisible assailant.  
  
'Damn.' Ranma thought as he watched Ryu fall to the ground in pain. He was surprised when Ryu trudged back to his feet with a smile on his face.  
  
"I still standing... the fight... isn't over." The obviously hurt martial artist got out.  
  
"You have a very strong spirit boy." Gen acknowledged as he approached him. Gen decided to rush the young man since it looked like he could barely stand.  
  
Taking a deep calming breath Ryu attacked with a gravity defying spinning kick. He quickly covered the ground between the oncoming Gen and himself, as he spun in the air like the hurricane the moved was named after.  
  
"Tatsumaki Senpukyaku!"  
  
'He shouldn't have enough energy to pull off that move!' was all Gen could think as he was caught with the move for three consecutive hits before being thrown back.  
  
Ryu using the last of his strength fired off another fireball at the rolling form of Gen, hoping to time his attack at the moment Gen recovered from the kick and rolled to his feet.  
  
"Hadoken!"  
  
"It ends now." Gen whispered to his self as he heard the cry of Ryu. As he was rolling back he waited until he feet were to the ground before shooting into the air and rebounding of the trees to position himself right above Ryu's form. Jumping down of the branch from overhead, Gen took Ryu out of the fight.  
  
"Oga!"  
  
'That fight was better than I expected.' Ranma thought as he walked over to the two fighters.  
  
__________  
  
"Ohhh..." Ryu groaned as he woke up. 'I.. I lost. I haven't lost since I fought 'him' a couple of months ago.'  
  
"So you're awake." Came a wizened voice.  
  
Ryu turned to face the man that had defeated him. "Yeah, I guess so."  
  
"I don't remember you being so grumpy when you used to wake up." Came from the other side of Ryu.  
  
"Sorry. I'm just upset I lost. I've been training really hard to beat someone and I thought I was ready... but I guess not."  
  
"I think we all know that feeling." Gen stated.  
  
"Maybe, it's just that the man I'm trying to defeat is extremely powerful. He's almost more than human. If I can't beat a normal man how can I stand up to him?" Ryu looked at his clenched fist.  
  
"Normal man? I think you're underestimating me... which is rather odd since you already lost to me." Gen chuckled.  
  
"Look Ryu, Gen's an incredible fighter and as far as I know, he and I are supposedly the only ones to live through the final technique of some monster named Akuma. So don't think he some regular fighter." Ranma was never one to miss an opportunity to toot his own horn.  
  
"Both of you? That's impossible! Akuma's raging demon is unstoppable!" Ryu propped himself up to look at the two.  
  
Ranma puffed up with pride. "Sorry to burst your bubble but I got tagged with it only 3 months ago, and look at me I'm almost completely fine."  
  
Gen tried not to smile at the antics of the two young boys. "Be that as it may, you seem to know about Akuma."  
  
Ryu turned away from Ranma "Akuma was the one who killed my master a few years ago."  
  
"What?! Gouken's dead?" Ranma cried out.  
  
"Yes, Gouki, Gouken's brother killed him. Later we found out that Gouki was actually the same man known as Akuma. I fought him about 7 months ago, he toyed with me for a while before telling me to seek him out once I realized my true power... whatever that means." Ryu looked at the fire that was under the pot of water.  
  
"So that's who you've been training to beat. You and the others most be pretty strong then if you guys are planning on taking him on. But you should know, that's who I'm working towards defeating too. I know that I didn't train under Gouken for that long, but if I fight Akuma before you..." Ranma left the rest unspoken.  
  
"I'd rather do it myself, but I thank you anyway. As to the 'others', Dan didn't stay with us long enough to find out about Akuma. Even though you probably remember, he wasn't the most focused." Ryu tried not to show any semblance of disgust for him. Dan wasn't a bad guy but he was darn annoying!  
  
"Not to mention that a pink gi is just wrong. So very wrong..." Ranma shook his head. 'How can a guy wearing a pink gi run around shouting about vengeance? At least Kuno wore blue...'  
  
"I should be going, I'm well enough to walk. Next time we meet each other perhaps we can have a match?"  
  
"Sure, I'll kick your butt if you want." Ranma smirked.  
  
'Kid reminds me of Ken...' Ryu thought while narrowing his eyes at Ranma. "Thank you for the fight Gen." After bowing he retrieved his pack an continued on his journey.  
  
Ranma turned to the rocks he had gathered as Ryu walked away. 'I will defeat Akuma... And before Ryu!' Ranma started slamming his finger into the stones.  
  
Gen refrained from commenting on Ranma's new determination that was all but visible on his face. 'It seems there's a hidden rivalry brewing between them.'  
  
__________  
  
"You want me to read this?" Ranma asked as she and Gen walked out of the book store.  
  
"Yes, ancient chinese proverbs are very interesting. Some are even humorous." Gen walked ahead of her. "Besides it'll help with your Chinese. I'm surprised we were able to get it so cheap..."  
  
Ranma snorted "Yeah, I'm sure being splashed by that puddle had nothing to do with it..."  
  
"Once we start back through the forest tomorrow I'll show you some amazing strength increasing exercises... but for tonight I want you to read 1/4 of that book."  
  
"What?! A quarter of this big book!" Ranma gaped at the old man in front of her. "I won't even understand half of it, it's in freakin' Chinese!"  
  
"As you would say 'duh, of course it's in chinese' ." Gen forced himself not to smile at the twitching redhead.  
  
"You better hope it's not you and me in the end old man..." Ranma grumbled.  
  
__________  
  
"How amazing... Just kick the tree's until they fall." Ranma sarcastically cried to herself as she once again kicked the tree for all she was worth. "Ow, ow, ow, ow."  
  
Kick "Ow, ow, ow, ow!"  
  
Kick "Ow, ow, ow, ow!"  
  
Kick "Ow, ow, ow, ow!"  
  
"This really hurts you know...."  
  
"Yes I know... say isn't time for you to start reading?"  
  
Kick...  
  
"You finally kicked the tree down."  
  
"..."  
  
__________  
  
"Happy Birthday to me." Ranma cheered to no one as he sat in front of the slice of cake he recently bought... or swindled if you wanted to get technical, when the waiter saw the 'cute' redhead enter he offered her a nice discount. Said waiter was miffed when he returned to find a black haired man at her table. Looking around the small cafe he was in he noticed a young man walking by with a pained look on his face, the type of pain Ranma knew well. 'Kid looks half starved...' Checking the money he had left in his wallet he said what the hell, "Yo, kid... Hey, I'm talking to you!" Ranma growled as the kid purposely ignored him.  
  
"Ow... Why you!" the red-haired kid looked up from the spoon that had impacted with the side of his head.  
  
"Ah stuff it, that's what you get for ignoring me." Ranma smirked.  
  
"I wasn't ignoring you. You obviously were calling someone else since my name isn't 'kid'." The boy sneered.  
  
"You hungry?" Ranma ignored the boy's irritation.  
  
"W-what?" The teenager blinked. Weren't they about to start arguing?  
  
"I said Are. You. Hungry?" Ranma pretending to make hand signals to emphasize his question.  
  
The boy's face matched the color of his hair as he tried not to growl at the older guy in front of him. "I heard you the first time."  
  
"So what's your answer then?" Ranma started to take a bite of his cake. He waited for an answer from the kid that was staring at him.  
  
"No I'm not hungry." The young man turned away from Ranma, only to be betrayed by his growling stomach.  
  
"Sit down and eat." Ranma commanded. Whether the kid wanted it or not, Ranma was going to fed him. 'Kid reminds me too much of myself at that age... It would have been nice if someone had bought me a meal instead of ignoring me when I was hungry...'  
  
As the sound of the older boy's voice carried a tone that told him he should go along for now, the other boy sat down across from him.  
  
A waiter seemed to appear out of nowhere beside the table. Ranma looked at the redhead and blinked "Well order something. I already ate."  
  
"Right." the boy looked at Ranma suspiciously "I'll have a... steak."  
  
Ranma almost swallowed the cake down the wrong tube, looking at his 'guest' he found the other boy grinning at him. Shrugging his shoulders Ranma went back to eating the cake. 'Cocky punk...' Ranma thought while smiling. "So 'kid' what's with the starving artist look?" Ranma had noticed the poise with which the kid walked with, it was definitely the walk of a martial artist.  
  
"What?"  
  
"I could tell by looking at you, you're a fighter, or at least training to be." Ranma looked at the young man.  
  
"Well I'm training right now... with my father." the sound of his voice at the mention of his father also gave Ranma a feeling of familiarity.  
  
"I take it you and your father don't get along." Ranma asked, a snort was his only answer. Looking closer at the boy, Ranma noted various bruises. Ranma's voice turned back to it's commanding tone. "Does he beat you? Or are your bruises simply form training."  
  
The boy looked back at him in the eyes "Is there a difference?"  
  
"There should be. I actually trained for ten years with an abusive father. True, he never beat me with objects or hit me when we weren't training. But the methods he used for training me were more than enough to get the bastard arrested many times over. Eventually I had to get away from him... I don't know your situation but I suggest keeping that thought in mind." Ranma bore into the younger man.  
  
The two ate in silence once the waiter came with the plate of food. Even though with more manners than Ranma ever displayed around Nerima, the boy devoured the steak in no time.  
  
"I guess you haven't ate in awhile." Ranma spoke to break the ice.  
  
"I really like meat is all..." The boy shrugged. The boy noted that the pigtailed man stood up with a grace that he had rarely seen.  
  
"Remember what I said alright, don't stay with that man if you don't have to. No one should control your life but you." Ranma gave him a pointed look.  
  
"I will. I'll train with him until I know what I need to know about my fighting abilities before I take my leave of him." the young man had a disturbing smile on his face.  
  
Ranma raised an eyebrow. "Whatever." 'what you need to know about your fighting abilities? what does that mean?' "Well when you finish your training look me up. The name's Ranma, simply Ranma."  
  
"I will, you'll definitely hear from Iori Yagami again, simply Ranma." The young men stared at each other before Ranma smirked and walked away "Until then Yagami..."  
  
__________  
  
{So my chinese is gotten better.} Ranma smiled.  
  
{Getting.}  
  
{So my Chinese is getting better.} Ranma growled.  
  
"Relax, yes you're doing extremely well. Your schooling in China will polish it off for you though." Gen returned as they neared the docks where the boat to take them to China was waiting.  
  
Ranma took a good look around the empty pavement that was the docking grounds. 'There's no one here yet... Good, if my curse is triggered I won't have a problem with too many people seeing it.'  
  
Both paused as they felt two very strong auras near. "It feels like the... perv." Ranma groaned.  
  
"The perv?... Do you mean Happosai?" Gen questioned.  
  
"Yep, and the other one is Cologne, I think."  
  
"Very good son-in-law." Came a voice from overhead.  
  
Looking up both Gen and Ranma found the two ancient martial artists atop a boat. Jumping down Cologne peered at Gen. "Well hello sir. May I ask what business you have with my son-in-law?"  
  
"Ah, you must be the grandmother of Shampoo, that he's told me about. My name is Gen, and I have taken Ranma under my wing to train him to defeat an opponent he and I share." Gen returned politely.  
  
"I see. This opponent would not be the same one that almost killed son-in- law would it?"  
  
"Why yes, how did you know?"  
  
Ranma fidgeted as he kept glancing between Happosai and Cologne. 'Any minute now one of them is going to try to drag me back... or to China in Cologne's case. I wonder where everyone else is.'  
  
"Simple, when Ranma stormed away from us all, I could still recognize his ki signature. I sensed it come into contact with a familiar presence... Akuma. A few of my Amazon warriors of the last few years have come across him. I thought he had killed Ranma those months ago." Cologne answered.  
  
"I see. So what do you plan to do now?" Gen quickly glanced at the other diminutive master.  
  
"I've come to ask my son-in-law for his plan on how he's going to remove himself as Shampoo's groom without destroying her honor? I know he still cares about those in Nerima, otherwise the young okonomiyaki chef would not be in such a good mood." Cologne smiled at Ranma.  
  
Ranma grinned back "Actually I have been thinking about it. If I could I would like to challenge a fighter of your choosing in one year. If I win, Shampoo can return to the village with out me as her husband with her honor intact. If I lose and live to tell it, I will marry Shampoo or whatever else it is you wish from me. And if I should lose my life then I guess Shampoo's original kiss of death would be fulfilled. Does that work for you?"  
  
Cologne thought about it. "Mostly. However I don't know if having you killed by someone other than Shampoo will be a good idea. But sure, in one year you shall return to the Amazon village to challenge for the right of immunity to our laws." After finishing Cologne made absolutely no move to leave. This of course made Ranma a bit tense.  
  
"Ranma, Ranma, Ranma. You're just full of surprises aren't you. First you tap into the true power of Anything goes at the age of 17, you turn your back on your family, you survive the raging demon, and now you have found an honest to goodness chance at resolving your business with the amazons. But let's see if you can surprise me one more time before you leave Japan. Face me in combat to become a master of the true Anything Goes school." Was the bombshell Happosai dropped next.  
  
"Wha..." Ranma blinked, before narrowing his eyes. "Is this some kind of joke? Cause if it is I'm done playing with you people."  
  
Happosai grinned "Let me put you at ease."  
  
Ranma took a step back as he felt Happosai power up much like the first time he truly fought the master and was almost attacked with that weird ki move that looked like a Happosai dragon. However instead of shooting some ki attack, Happosai started to grow.  
  
'So he's going to use the move he showed me when I tricked him with that herb that drove all the girls away.'  
  
"I won't be passing out anytime soon, are you up to the challenge?" A 6 foot tall Happosai asked.  
  
"Such an bizarre way to use a battle aura" Gen commented "Though I guess I can see the uses for it."  
  
"Happy was always bizarre..." quipped Cologne.  
  
Ranma settled in for long battle 'At least I'm at a hundred percent.' "Let's do it!"  
  
The two jumped into the air towards one another. Ranma flipped into a jump kick with only minimal force, it was designed more to give him the ability to move in the air easier whether the kick landed or was blocked. Happosai did neither, he simply grabbed the leg and yanked the pigtailed boy towards him and slammed a fist into the exposed stomach.  
  
Ranma rocketed towards the ground unable to right himself due to the force of the blow. Happosai softly landed on the ground. "That pretty stuff you and Genma love to do in the air ain't going to cut it with me. This is a fight, not a dance."  
  
Ranma bristled at the perverts words. 'Like he ever takes a fight seriously... But still, I better give him all I got. Maybe I can get him to fight like Gen described that time.' Rising back to his feet, Ranma gave Happosai his trademark smirk. "Sorry, let's try that again." And with that the two once again took to the air.  
  
As they neared each other Ranma threw out an elbow, which was blocked. Barely acknowledging the block, He unfolded his arm changing the elbow into a backhand. Happosai spun into his own elbow as he was forced to turn form the backhand. However, he followed up his elbow with a swinging knee to the face. As Ranma was turned upside down from the knee he lashed out with both legs kick Happosai away and allowing himself to flip onto his feet on the ground.  
  
Turning back to his self proclaimed master, Ranma started to bounce from left to right on his feet. Happosai smirked before flipping into a cartwheel and then several back handsprings towards the pig-tailed boy. Ranma stopped bouncing and raised an eyebrow. 'What in the world is he doing?' Happosai stopped flipping two feet away from Ranma, however a powerful gust of wind flew by him slamming into his 'student' forcing the boy to cover his face.  
  
The moment Ranma raised his arms he knew he had messed up. A wicked jab to his ribs seemed to reinforce his belief. The two fisted overhead punch to his back as he was bent over also seemed to agree with him. Snarling Ranma threw his head back up instead of dropping to his knees. He promised himself not to try that move again when it successfully connected with Happosai's head. 'Damn! that hurt!' He continued to press his advantage with a combo of kicks to Happosai's thigh, ribs, then head in quick succession. Taking a step back, he reversed direction back towards his challenger with a straight kick to the chest.  
  
Running to catch up with his retreating foe, Ranma employed a flying jump kick. Happosai immediately stopped retreating and ducked under the kick. Before Ranma could even think about twisting in the air he was sent flying by a punch to his lower back. He welcomed the time it took to reach the peak of his flight, since it gave him the opportunity to swallow the pain from the punch. As he started to make his descent he faced the ground and threw his burning black ki blast.  
  
"Flaming Darkness!"  
  
Happosai's surprise at the attack kept him from dodging it, instead he only had time to counter with a quick bomb. As the explosion died down Ranma came flying through it like a fallen angel as his black aura blazed around him. Not to intimidated by such flashy shows of power Happosai decided to give Ranma a taste of his own medicine.  
  
The air borne fighter cursed when Happosai sent a ki blast at him, effectively knocking him off course. Landing on his feet, Ranma once again engaged Happosai in close combat. Happosai's punch to the face was blocked, Ranma's uppercut in retaliation was sidestepped, both landed right hooks, Happosai's knee to the gut was caught, but he followed it up with a backflip that broke the hold.  
  
Getting desperate Ranma cocked his right hand back and lit it with his black aura to get Happosai's attention. When the pervert started to raise his left hand to defend, Ranma unloaded the technique he saw Gen use. The one handed, pressure point, amaguriken type move...  
  
"Hyakurenko!"  
  
Gen blinked at the sight. "His version has way more punches... and it's faster."  
  
"It's a lot like our Katchu Tenshin Amaguiken technique." Cologne informed him "It's a move that Ranma has employed quite a bit since learning."  
  
"I'll have to ask him to tell me more about his battles, perhaps during our trip on the boat..." Gen commented more to himself than to the old women.  
  
"He hasn't bragged about any of them yet?" Cologne asked with smile.  
  
"He's been to busy learning Chinese. He's quite bright despite what I read in his school records." Gen blinked as the a thought struck him "Case in point." he gestured towards Ranma's attack on Happosai.  
  
"You don't need to tell me. That's why I wanted him as part of my village. A male who was smart enough to change the minds of some of the women who are stuck in tradition but is easy going enough not to put them on guard. Oh well I guess I'll just have to wait until next year."  
  
"You sound pretty sure of the outcome." Gen tried not to seem to interested, but he wondered just what the women was thinking.  
  
"I'm a good actress." Was all she said, but it was enough.  
  
Happosai was quite shocked at how long the boy could keep up the special move. He had tried to dodge and block most of the attacks while taking a few in order to be ready to counter as soon as Ranma finished instead of just getting out of range. He was starting to think that he might have made a mistake. Tired of waiting, Happosai allowed a few more attacks to land so he could get a feel for the pattern before catching Ranma's fist.  
  
'Fall dammit!' Ranma wanted to scream aloud at his foe as the man continued to take punch after punch. When his fist was caught he swung the other that had been holding a substantial amount of his power, unfortunately he couldn't keep it filled with the energy he realized too late. With both fists caught by Happosai, Ranma knew he was to tired to do much in defense.  
  
Happosai held both arms in his grip and reared back his leg. He stopped when he felt the arms he was holding suddenly grab onto him in return. "What are you... ARGHH!"  
  
"Inferno of Agony." Ranma whispered, as he implemented the same technique that defeated his one time father.  
  
The two fighter were engulfed in black flames for over 10 excruciating seconds. Using the last of his power, the grandmaster of Anything Goes broke free of the move only to return to his normal shrunken height. He was able to look in the eyes of Ranma since the young man was on his knees and gasping for breath.  
  
Staggering over to him, Happosai placed a hand on his shoulder "Enjoy China. Bring a fellow master of the true school of Anything Goes a souvenir... like some nice Amazonian panties. Ah, there's nothing quite like em' in the world, I should know." and then he bounded off.  
  
"That was quite exciting. I hope for another great performance next year son-in-law." Cologne called out before following Happosai.  
  
"Congratulations young Ranma. It seems you're the newest master of the Anything Goes school of martial arts." Gen smiled as he helped him up, and started towards the boat.  
  
"I guess I am." a smile slowly made it's way onto Ranma's face as he stepped on the platform connecting the docks with the boats. "What a great going away gift..."  
  
*Splash*  
  
"...Figures"  
  
(And so ends today's flashback)  
  
__________  
  
"Are you saying you're a grandmaster of Anything Goes?" Asked a stunned Ryouga.  
  
"You fought the master for real?!" Soun asked in a daze. "I can't remember the last time I saw the master fight for real... what about you Saotome?"  
  
"Daddy?"  
  
"Yo, Moron." Ranma kicked him. "He's out of it. Let's leave him be. Anyway, I hope that gave you the time you needed to come to a decision." He turned to Nodoka.  
  
"May I speak with you alone?" She asked.  
  
Ranma swallowed his throat. "If you feel it's necessary." He stood up and waited for Ranko's mother to lead him upstairs.  
  
Everyone else looked at one another with apprehension.  
  
Back in the the main bedroom Nodoka sat on her bed with her hands in her lap. "You heard my husband say he wouldn't allow me to stop Keiko from learning the Neko-ken."  
  
"True, but you can't keep listening to him. I don't know why you've done so for this long. I mean even if you didn't care enough about me to stand against him or because of honor, you still should have taking into consideration what he had done to the honor of the other families as well as the honor of yours when you constantly turned a blind eye to his actions." Ranma retorted.  
  
"You don't understand. I never intended to force you to fulfill that contract, I used it to scare you into being better than your father. I was forced to marry your father because of an arranged marriage, and I hated it. But the honor of my family rested on it. So I married a deceitful man who did whatever he could to get what he wanted. So if my husband wasn't going to be the honorable one that meant I had to double my efforts to be so." Nodoka took a moment to steel herself as she felt her resolve weaken.  
  
"Then he told me about the arrangement between the Tendo's and us and I didn't want you or the girls to go through what I went through. So I had planned on making you a truly honorable man so that they would be proud to be wedded to you. But then he decided on the training trip to make you a better martial artist. I firmly believed that as honor less as your father was that he wouldn't do some of the things he did to you. And to make sure that he didn't steer you towards being like him I came up the contract. I knew if there was one thing Genma valued it was his life, so it only made sense to me at the time to make such a pact." Ranma could hear the pain in her voice as she spoke, he could tell she was trying to hold back her tears.  
  
"That day 7 years ago, I didn't reach for the sword to force you to use it. I held it because it was the only thing that could keep me calm when things were too much for me, but I never had the chance to tell you that or that I was sorry for what you had to go through growing up. I realized after you left that I had made so many mistakes with dealing with you." Nodoka got out before finally letting the tears that had been building up over the years, before and after the time she spent with her son in Nerima, fall.  
  
"Mom... Nodoka... I don't know what to say..." Ranma fought back his own tears.  
  
"Please Ranma, I need your strength." She pleaded.  
  
"Ex-excuse me?" Ranma blurted out "What are you talking about?"  
  
"I can't continue to live with a man like your father. Even Keiko treats him like an uncle more than a father... a man who is only around to teach her martial arts but never there for anything else. I had to beg him just to have her. But I can never get the courage to finally end it. Please with you and Keiko with me... I ..." Nodoka was cut off when Ranma embraced her in a hug. "R-Ranma." She let it all out, the pain of losing her son twice, the sorrow of raising a daughter who doesn't have a male figure to truly look up to around, and even happiness at the return of her first born.  
  
__________  
  
As the occupants downstairs waited, Ukyo remembered something. "Say Ryouga are you going to ask Akane to be your partner at the tournament?" she whispered.  
  
"Wow, you going to be in the tournament with Akane?" Asked an excited Keiko.  
  
"Oops... didn't know she was listening..." Ukyo had the good graces to look sheepish.  
  
"Whoa now Ranko... I'm not.."  
  
"You want to be my partner?" Akane asked as she walked by and heard Ranko.  
  
"Um...No." Ryouga got out.  
  
"Excuse me?---- Oh I get it, you still worried what I'll do since I know you're P-chan. I told you all those years when I found out, the butt whippin' I gave you then was the only one you were going to get." She smiled sweetly at him.  
  
"Riiight... how comforting..." Ryouga grumbled under his breath.  
  
"Well then it's settled. Me and Ryouga will be partners." Akane stated as she walked over to try to snap her father out of his daze.  
  
"Um..." Ryouga raised a hand as if he wanted to ask a question.  
  
"Tough luck, sugar." Ukyo shrugged her shoulders.  
  
Ryouga hung his head "Akari's going to kill me..."  
  
"Who's that?" Ranko asked.  
  
"My wife..." Ryouga continued to lament his fate.  
  
"Your Married!" Came a chorus of voices. Causing Ryouga to blink.  
  
"Yes..." He started to back up as the women surrounded him.  
  
"Was it a big marriage?"  
  
"Why didn't you invite us?"  
  
"What kind of ring did the two of you get?"  
  
"Where IS the ring?"  
  
"Now who will I marry Akane off to?!"  
  
*WHAM*  
  
"Well my ring is right here..." Ryouga started to search through his bag. "Ah, here we go." He pulled out a pretty yet modest necklace with a matching ring.  
  
Kasumi had a tear in her eye. "Oh it's so beautiful..."  
  
"I've seen better... way bett...oof!" Nabiki looked at her big sister 'that kind of hurt...'  
  
"Congratulations Mr. P" Ryouga blinked as he heard Ranko call him 'Mr. P'.  
  
Everyone turned to her only to stare in shock as they saw a grinning Ranma and a red-eyed Nodoka, standing behind her. "Ranma told me to call you Mr. P from now on." Ranko gave him a big grin, almost stopping him from correcting her.  
  
"But Ranko my name's Ryouga not Mr. P" Ryouga glared at the grinning Ranma.  
  
"I know but Ranma said..." Ranko began.  
  
"It's alright Ranko, I was just joking." Ranma patted her head. "Seriously though, congratulations. Now let's wake the bastard up, shall we."  
  
"Ranma watch your language around Ranko." Nodoka corrected him.  
  
Everyone held their breath.  
  
"Sorry...mom."  
  
And then gasped.  
  
"No way is the boy higher than me in ranking!" Genma snapped awake at a rather convenient moment.  
  
"Good you back up. Listen up Genma, I'm taking Ranko with me." Ranma gave Genma his new evil smirk, something Ranma had been working on for the tournament.  
  
Even though he began to back away from the sight, Genma continued to speak "I won't allow it."  
  
Ranma's smirk never faltered "It doesn't matter. You don't matter."  
  
"Nodoka! I forbid you from letting Keiko leave with him." Genma turned to his wife.  
  
"She leaving with him." Nodoka spoke with conviction.  
  
"You dare defy me wife?" Genma growled.  
  
"Yes. And no longer call me wife."  
  
"What?" Genma faltered.  
  
"I think it's rather clear. but just in case let me spell it out for you. I'm leaving with Ranko and my... mother. So long Genma, you'd better sure as hell hope we never meet again." Ranma laughed.  
  
To Be Continued  
  
Next Time: Meetings and Partings- Ranma leaves with his mother and sister for the United States to start handing out the last of the invitations to the tournament. During the flight, Ranko continues to learn about Ranma's past as he tells her about his meeting with the famous action star and the strongest women in the world. And of course more teams shall be revealed.  
  
quail12001@yahoo.com  
  
Special thanks to Beer-monster for being a proofreader for my story, be sure to check out his great fic "Honour and Pride" on ff.net and the Lost Library of Florestica, home to some great Ranma fanfics.(). 


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